Antigen dose-dependent differences in IgE antibody production are not due to polarization towards Th1 and Th2 cell subsets.

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Antigen dose-dependent differences in IgE antibody production are not due to polarization towards Th1 and Th2 cell subsets.

Eur J Immunol. 1998 Feb;28(2):681-6. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE MED/98180373
Arps V; Sudowe S; Kolsch E; Institute for Immunology, University of Munster, Germany.; arps@uni-muenster.de

Abstract: The quality of the humoral immune response against protein antigens in CBA/J mice is dependent on the antigen dose used for immunization: low doses induce high titers of IgE antibodies, whereas high doses promote the production of IgG2a antibodies but inhibit IgE formation. To investigate whether the reciprocal regulation of antibody production is possibly due to a differential activation of Th1 and Th2 cell populations in the two immunization groups, the cytokine pattern of spleen cells from both groups, cultured with antigen in vitro, was analyzed by measurement of intracellular and secreted cytokine levels. The data presented show that in vitro restimulated spleen cells from mice primed with low as well as with high doses of antigen produce predominantly the Th2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 but reduced levels of IL-12. The release of IFN-gamma is only slightly enhanced compared to unstimulated control cultures. The results indicate that CD4+ T cells in both groups belong mainly to the Th2 cell subset. This finding is contradictory to the general allegation that the antigen dose is decisive for the polarization of Th1 versus Th2 immune responses and shows that the antigen dose-dependent regulation of IgE antibody production is not due to differential polarization towards Th1 and Th2 cells.

Keywords: *Antigens/IMMUNOLOGY *Hemocyanin/IMMUNOLOGY *IgE/BIOSYNTHESIS *Th1 Cells/METABOLISM *Th2 Cells/METABOLISM
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