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Potential non‐T cells source of interleukin‐4 in food allergy
Author(s) -
Caubet JeanChristoph,
Masilamani Madhan,
Rivers Neisha A.,
Mayer Lloyd,
Sampson Hugh A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
pediatric allergy and immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.269
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1399-3038
pISSN - 0905-6157
DOI - 10.1111/pai.12207
Subject(s) - medicine , immunology , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , population , allergy , allergen , basophil , food allergy , immunoglobulin e , antibody , biology , in vitro , biochemistry , environmental health
Background Recently, a study from the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (Co FAR ) showed that allergen‐induced IL ‐4 expression in CD 25 + mononuclear cells was increased in allergic patients. However, they did not find the expected increase in GATA ‐3 expression, suggesting that allergen‐induced IL ‐4 might not be of T‐cell origin. We sought to determine whether other cell types were responsible for the increased IL ‐4 expression in the CD 25 + cell population. Methods Comparing six allergic patients and six healthy controls, we analyzed the CD 25 + isolated population from PBMC for the presence of potential IL ‐4‐expressing non‐T cells. We also compared spontaneous expression levels of surface markers ( CD 203c, CD 63, CD 25, and HLA ‐ DR ) on basophils from whole blood of 42 peanut‐allergic patients and from 12 non‐atopic controls. Expression of these markers was also evaluated following basophil activation in eight peanut‐allergic patients selected from the previous cohort. Results In addition to CD 4 + T cells, a substantial proportion of non‐T cells were found in the CD 25 + ‐isolated cell population: basophils, NK , and NK ‐T cells with a mean percentage ± s.e.m. of 5.24 ± 0.63%, 6.65 ± 1.01%, and 6.01 ± 1.04%, respectively. The majority of these cells exhibited positive intracytoplasmic staining for IL ‐4. Expression of CD 63 and CD 25 was significantly higher in allergic patients compared with controls (p < 0.05). Interestingly, we found a significantly higher proportion of activated basophils expressing HLA ‐ DR , compared with non‐activated basophils (p < 0.05). Conclusions Our results support the suggested key role of non‐T cells secreting IL ‐4 in food allergy, particularly basophils, which may also play a central role in antigen presentation.