Premium
Induction of autoimmunity by immunization with hapten‐modified hen egg lysozyme in hen egg lysozyme‐transgenic mice
Author(s) -
Kang HeeKap,
Chung Yun Jo,
Park Chung Ung,
Jang YongSuk,
Kim Byung S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.297
H-Index - 133
eISSN - 1365-2567
pISSN - 0019-2805
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2567.2005.02310.x
Subject(s) - hapten , epitope , antigen , antibody , biology , immunization , phosphorylcholine , t cell , immunology , microbiology and biotechnology , immune system , biochemistry
Summary To understand the mechanism of autoimmunity induction, hen egg lysozyme (HEL)‐transgenic (Tg) C57BL/6 (B6) mice were immunized with HEL or phosphorylcholine‐conjugated HEL (PC‐HEL). Repeated immunization of HEL‐Tg mice with native HEL failed to induce the antibody response against HEL. However, immunization with PC‐HEL generated a significant anti‐HEL antibody response. Immunization of the Tg mice with dominant (HEL 74−88 ) or cryptic (HEL 47−61 ) T‐cell epitope peptide stimulated the corresponding T‐cell response and similarly yielded the anti‐HEL antibody response. Predominance of immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) anti‐HEL antibody response in the HEL‐Tg mice and preferential IL‐4 production by HEL‐specific T cells suggested the dependency of the antibody response to the presence of T helper 2. HEL‐Tg mice received HEL‐primed B6 T cells, but not HEL‐primed Tg T cells, were able to generate anti‐HEL antibody response following PC‐HEL immunization. The pattern and the level of epitope peptides generated by splenic antigen‐presenting cells indicated that PC‐HEL results in much more efficient processing as compared to HEL. These results strongly suggest that the enhancement of antigen processing by hapten (PC) conjugation to the antigen facilitates more efficient stimulation of T cells reactive to self antigen, HEL in HEL‐Tg mice resulting in the production of anti‐self HEL antibody.