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Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Goteborg, Goteborg, Sweden
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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The mechanism by which the gut immune system selects the tolerance pathway rather than the productive pathway is largely unknown. At least three primary mechanisms for oral tolerance have been described: active suppression (11, 12, 13, 14, 15), clonal anergy (16, 17), and clonal deletion (18). These mechanisms can probably be operative simultaneously, although high doses of Ag seem to favor anergy and clonal deletion, while low doses of Ag may promote active suppression (19, 20, 21). Because oral tolerance has been found to affect CD4+ as well as CD8+ T cell functions and can be adoptively transferred by both these subsets (11, 13, 22, 23), it remains unclear whether feeding of Ag concomitantly affects both populations and, if so, whether CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are induced to exert control in the same or different compartments. The latter point is especially interesting, since the gut immune system is highly organized, with a majority of CD8+ T cells located to the intraepithelial (IE) compartment while CD4+ T cells predominate in the lamina propria (LP) of the gut mucosa as well as in the Peyers patches (PP) and lymphoid follicles (24, 25). Thus, tolerance following feeding of Ag may be a highly compartmentalized phenomenon, with CD4+ and CD8+ T cells having separate and unique regulatory functions.
The CD8+ T cells are abundant in the mucosal immune system,
and although their presence is seen in LP and in PP, most of these
cells are found in the IE compartment (25). Roughly 80 to 90% of the
small intestinal IE lymphocytes are CD8+ T cells, of which
half express the TCR
and half express the TCR
ß, whereas in
LP and PP most CD8+ T cells are TCR
ß+
(25). Despite much recent interest in the intestinal CD8+ T
cells, the immunobiologic function of these cells largely remains to be
determined. Earlier studies have associated CD8+ cells with
a regulatory function on epithelial cell growth and mucosal immune
responses as well as with host resistance against some intracellular
pathogens (25). Also, the potent immunomodulating action of CT on
mucosal immune responses has been ascribed a selective inhibitory
effect on suppressive gut CD8+ T cells (26).
Few studies have examined the induction of oral tolerance in the
absence of CD8+ T cells using subset-specific mAbs for in
vivo depletion (27, 28). However, as we have shown previously, in vivo
T cell depletion may not be successful in eliminating cells from the
intestinal immune system, albeit systemic lymphoid tissues demonstrate
complete loss of T cells (29). Therefore, to better understand the
complexity of mechanisms regulating induction and maintenance of oral
tolerance at local and systemic levels, we undertook studies in CD8
gene-targeted (CD8-/-) mice (30). In an earlier study we
reported that the CD8-/- mice have normal gut
CD3+ T cell numbers, but whereas CD8+ cells are
replaced by CD4+ T cells in organized lymphoid tissues
(mesenteric lymph nodes and PP) and in the LP, by contrast,
TCR
+ CD3+
CD4-CD8- (double-negative) cells greatly
predominate among the IE T cells of CD8-/- mice (31). The
current study addressed the role of CD8+ T cells in oral
tolerance and whether evidence for compartmentalization of control of
the tolerant state could be observed. In these studies CT adjuvant was
used as a unique means to study oral tolerance and productive gut IgA
immunity simultaneously.
| Materials and Methods |
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For these studies we used mice deficient for CD8
(CD8-/-; H-2b) by gene targeting the CD8
-chain (129.Sv x C57Bl/6; provided by Prof. Tak Mak, Toronto,
Canada) (30). The CD8-/- mice were bred for at least four
generations onto the C57Bl/6 strain. Therefore, for comparisons we used
both wild-type (wt) C57Bl/6 (H-2b) and F1 mice (129.Sv
x C57Bl/6; H-2b) as wt controls. The mice were kept under
pathogen-free conditions at the Department of Medical Microbiology and
Immunology, University of Goteborg (Goteborg, Sweden). All experiments
were conducted with 6- to 12-wk-old mice.
Immunizations and induction of oral tolerance
Please see the detailed outline of experiments in Figure 1
. Briefly, age- and sex-matched mice
were fed four oral doses of PBS or 2.5 mg of keyhole limpet hemocyanin
(KLH; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO), given alone or together with
10 µg of CT (List Biologic Laboratories, Campell, CA) in 0.5 ml of
PBS containing 3% (w/v) NaHCO3. To investigate whether CT
was able to abrogate already established oral tolerance, mice were
immunized by one or three oral doses of 2.5 mg of KLH plus 10 µg of
CT adjuvant as indicated in Figure 1
. Feedings and immunizations were
performed with a baby feeding tube under light ether anesthesia as
previously described (8). Seven days after the last feeding or oral
immunization, animals were immunized i.p. with 100 µg of KLH (Sigma)
in RIBI adjuvant (TriChem ApS, Copenhagen, Denmark) and were boosted
i.p. 14 days later with 100 µg of KLH alone. In experiments examining
the effects of oral tolerance on subsequent mucosal immunity, tolerance
was first induced as described above, and then mice were immunized with
three oral doses of 2.5 mg of KLH admixed with 10 µg of CT adjuvant.
Local intestinal suppression and bystander suppression were also
evaluated after oral immunizations of KLH-tolerant mice with 10 mg of
chicken egg albumin (OVA, grade V; Sigma Chemical Co.) plus 10 µg of
CT adjuvant given with or without KLH at 2.5 mg/dose. Five to seven
mice were included in each group throughout the study.
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After passing the spleens (SP) through a nylon net and lysis of RBC with Tris-ammonium chloride, lymphocytes in single cell suspensions were washed in PBS and resuspended to appropriate cell density. The isolation procedure for intestinal LP lymphocytes has been described in detail previously (32). Briefly, after removing the PP, the small intestines were cut into small pieces and washed in Ca2+- and Mg2+-free HBSS (Life Technologies, Paisley, Scotland). Thereafter, the tissue pieces were incubated in Ca2+- and Mg2+-free HBSS containing 5 mM EDTA (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) to remove epithelial cells and IE lymphocytes. Finally, to extract the LP lymphocytes, the tissue was digested by repeated incubations in RPMI 1640 (Flow Laboratories, Irvine, Scotland) containing 100 U/ml of collagenase (type C2913, Sigma). SP cells were analyzed individually from five to seven mice, whereas LP cells were analyzed in pairs from six mice.
Serum Ab titers
The mice were bled at sacrifice, and the serum samples were analyzed individually in flat-bottom 96-well microtiter plates (Nunc, Roskilde, Denmark) coated with 100 µg/ml of KLH (Sigma) in PBS at 4°C overnight. After washing the plates in PBS and blocking with 0.1% BSA/PBS for 30 min at 37°C, sera at 1/1000 dilution were serially diluted 1/3 in 0.1% BSA/PBS in corresponding subwells. The plates were kept at 4°C overnight, and following washing in PBS/0.05% Tween-20, the plates were incubated with alkaline phosphatase (AP)-conjugated, isotype-specific, goat anti-mouse Abs (Southern Biotechnology, Birmingham, AL) at 1/500 dilution. After 2 h at room temperature, plates were washed, and the phosphatase substrate, p-nitrophenyl phosphatase (Sigma) was added to each well. The reaction was read at 405 nm using a Titer-Tek spectophotometer (Flow Laboratories). The Ab titers were defined as the interpolated dilutions of the samples giving rise to an absorbance on the linear part of the curve of 0.4 above background.
Enzyme-linked immunospot assay
The Ag-specific spot-forming cell (SFC) assay was performed as previously described (33). Briefly, analysis of KLH-specific SP SFC activity in tolerant and nontolerant mice was performed using 96-well Millipore HA plates (Millipore, Boston, MA) with a nitrocellulose (NC) membrane bottom. The NC membrane was coated with 100 µg/ml of KLH (Sigma) in PBS at 4°C overnight. After careful washing in PBS, the NC plates were blocked with Iscoves medium containing 10% heat-inactivated FCS (Life Technologies), 5 x 10-5 M 2-ME (Sigma), 1 mM L-glutamine, and 50 µg/ml gentamicin (hereafter referred to as Iscoves total medium) for 30 min at 37°C in 8% CO2. Thereafter, 100 µl of splenocytes at 2 x 106 cells/ml were added to each well and serially diluted 1/2 in corresponding subwells. The plates were incubated for 4 h at 37°C in 8% CO2. For detection of Ag-specific LP SFC activity, plastic petri dishes (Nunc A/S, Roskilde, Denmark) were coated with OVA (Sigma) or KLH (Sigma) at 0.1 mg/ml in PBS. For detection of CT-specific SFC activity, the dishes were coated with GM1 ganglioside (Sigma) at 3 nmol/ml followed by CT (List) at 3 µg/ml in PBS. After blocking with 0.1% BSA/PBS, duplicate dishes were incubated with 400 µl of lymphocytes at 1 to 2 x 106 cells/ml, and the cells were allowed to grow for 2 to 4 h at 37°C. After thorough washing in PBS/0.05% Tween-20, developing Abs at 1/200 dilution were added sequentially as follows: 1) for all SP SFC activity, horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated rabbit anti-mouse Ig (Dako, Glostrup, Denmark) followed by HRP-conjugated swine anti-rabbit Ig (Dako); or 2) for all LP SFC activity, goat anti-mouse IgA (Cappel, Organon, PA) followed by HRP-conjugated rabbit anti-goat Ig (Dako). The bound Abs marking single Ab-producing cells were visualized by adding to Millipore HA plates 1) 100 µl/well of 10 mg/ml of 3-amino-9-ethyl-carbazole (Sigma) substrate in dimethylformamide diluted 1/30 in citrate buffer (pH 4.5) and 0.05% H2O2, or to petri dishes 2) 0.5 mg/ml of p-phenylene-diamine substrate (Sigma) with 0.01% H2O2 substrate in a 1% agar/PBS solution. Spots were counted under low magnification and SFC numbers were expressed as the mean per 107 cells ± SE of five to seven individual mice for SP SFC or three pairs of mice for LP SFC activity. Importantly, preparations of LP lymphocytes from CD8-/- and wt mice were carefully screened and compared for total numbers and distribution of phenotypes by FACS. Consistently, we found that these preparations were comparable in CD8-/- and wt mice with regard to the frequency of T, B, and other cells, such that 58 ± 9 and 54 ± 13% (mean percentage observed in 10 different experiments) were CD3+ T cells and 34 ± 10 and 35 ± 3% were Ig+ in lamina propria lymphocytes from CD8-/- and wt mice, respectively. Moreover, the total IgA SFC activity in LP lymphocytes ranged from 450,000 to 500,000 SFC/107 isolated cells in both strains, which corresponded well with our previous observations (31).
Cytokine assays
For analysis of cytokine production by tolerant and
nontolerant SP T cells, cultures were set up in triplicate in
round-bottom 96-well plates (Nunc A/S) with 2 x 106
cells/ml in complete Iscoves medium. After 96 h at 37°C in 8%
CO2 in the presence or the absence of KLH at 100 µg/ml,
supernatants were harvested, and detection of IFN-
, IL-4, IL-5, and
IL-10 was performed by ELISA as described in detail previously (31, 34): Microtiter ELISA plates (Dynatech Laboratories, Inc., Chantilly,
VA) were coated with 100 µl of 1.0 to 5 µg/ml of rat anti-mouse
IFN-
(R46A2), IL-4 (BVD41D11), IL-5 (TRFK5), or IL-10
(JES52A5, PharMingen, San Diego, CA) in PBS at 4°C overnight. After
washing in PBS and blocking with 0.1% BSA/PBS for 30 min at 37°C,
serial 1/2 dilutions of supernatants and recombinant standards at
appropriate dilutions (mouse IL-4 and IFN-
(Genzyme, Cambridge, MA);
and mouse IL-5 and IL-10 (R&D, Minneapolis, MN)) were added in
duplicate at 100 µl/well, and the plates were incubated at 4°C
overnight. After washing in PBS/0.05% Tween-20, the plates were
incubated with polyclonal rabbit anti-mouse IFN-
serum at 1/500
dilution for 2 h at room temperature, followed by an AP-conjugated
goat anti-rabbit Ig (Southern Biotechnology) at 1/300 dilution or
biotin-conjugated anti-IL-4, anti-IL-5, or anti-IL-10
(PharMingen) at 1 to 5 µg/ml in 0.1% BSA/PBS. Finally, the plates
were incubated with extravidin-HRP (Sigma) at 2 µg/ml for an
additional 2 h. As an enhancing step to the IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10
ELISAs, the wells were further incubated with 1.5 µg/ml
biotinyl-tyramide (ELAST-kit, DuPont, Boston, MA) and 0.4 µl/ml
H2O2 in Tris-HCl buffer for 15 min at room
temperature, followed by an additional 30-min incubation with
extravidin-HRP (Sigma). The IL-4, IL-5, or IL-10 bound in each well was
visualized by using o-phenylenediamine (1 mg/ml)/0.04%
H2O2 substrate in citrate buffer, pH 4.5, and
the IFN-
reaction was assessed after the addition of
p-nitrophenyl phosphatase substrate (Sigma) to each well at
1 mg/ml in ethanol amine buffer. The immunoenzymatic reactions were
determined as absorbance in each well using a Titer-Tek Multiscan
spectrophotometer (Flow Laboratories) at 450 (HRP) or 405 (AP) nm. The
concentrations of cytokines in the supernatants were expressed in
picograms per milliliter, as calculated from the plotted standard
curves of serial dilutions of the recombinant cytokines. The
sensitivity of detection for respective cytokine was 1.0 ng/ml for
IFN-
, 40 pg/ml for IL-4, 50 pg/ml for IL-5, and 500 pg/ml for
IL-10.
Adoptive transfer of splenocytes
Donor mice were fed four oral doses of 2.5 mg of KLH
(Sigma) or PBS as outlined in Figure 1
. Seven days after the last
feeding, animals were killed, single cell suspensions of splenocytes
were prepared, and recipient naive CD8-/- mice were
injected i.v. with 20 x 106 splenocytes in 0.2 ml of
PBS. On the day after transfer the mice were given a single
immunization i.p. with 100 µg of KLH in RIBI adjuvant. Seven days
later the mice were killed, and the SP anti-KLH SFC activity was
determined.
Statistical analysis
We used Students t test for independent samples for analysis of significance.
| Results |
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Since both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells have
been implicated in the development and the maintenance of oral
tolerance, we wanted to examine whether tolerance also would be induced
in mice lacking CD8+T cells (2). To this end
CD8-/- or wt mice were fed four doses of KLH or PBS.
Systemic responsiveness was evaluated following priming and booster
immunizations (i.p) with KLH, as outlined in Figure 1
. Because the
CD8-/- mice (C57Bl/6 x 129Sv) were derived from
litters backcrossed for at least four generations onto C57Bl/6 mice,
the experiment was performed with both C57Bl/6 and F1 (C57Bl/6 x
129Sv) mice as wt control mice. SP cells from tolerized or PBS-fed mice
were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunospot assay technique for
anti-KLH SFC activity. We found that CD8-/- mice
developed systemic tolerance similar to or more pronounced than that
found in wt mice (Fig. 2
). The tolerized
mice exhibited 70 to 80% reduced splenic SFC responses compared with
PBS-fed control mice (p < 0.05; Fig. 2
).
Moreover, the induction of oral tolerance in CD8-/- mice
was dose dependent, with higher doses giving stronger suppression
(Fig. 2
).
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was significantly (p <
0.05) reduced in KLH-fed mice compared with that in PBS control mice
(Fig. 3
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Conflicting findings have been reported as to the relative effect
of feeding Ag on specific Th1 and Th2 CD4+ T cell
functions (27, 35, 36). Since we noted a strong reduction of Th1
functions, i.e., IFN-
production, in the tolerized
CD8-/- mice, we went on to evaluate the susceptibility of
Th2 cells to oral tolerance. Ag-stimulated splenic T cells were
analyzed for production of IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10. As shown in Table I
, significant and equivalent decreases
(p < 0.05) in IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 production
were found in tolerized CD8-/- and wt animals. In most
experiments the reduction in Th2 cytokine production was less
pronounced, however, than the reduction in IFN-
production (Fig. 3
and Table I
).
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Taken together, oral tolerance in CD8-/- mice appeared to affect both Th1 and Th2 CD4+ T cell subsets.
CT adjuvant prevents induction of oral tolerance in CD8-/- mice
An alternative way to study regulatory mechanisms in oral
tolerance is to use an adjuvant with strong immunomodulatory action on
the intestinal immune system. CT is well known for its powerful mucosal
adjuvant effects, which include strong enhancement of specific IgA and
CD4+ T cell responses to unrelated Ags (5, 7, 8). The
toxin also abrogates oral tolerance in normal mice, a mechanism thought
to require the presence of CD8+ T cells (5, 26). However,
we found that the ability of CT to prevent induction of oral tolerance
was similar in CD8-/- and wt mice (Fig. 4
). The relative effect of CT on
anti-KLH SFC responsiveness to systemic challenge immunizations was
comparable or stronger in CD8-/- compared with that in wt
mice (Fig. 4
). Furthermore, T cell responses, as determined by IFN-
production in response to recall Ag in vitro, were restored or even
augmented by CT adjuvant in both CD8-/- and wt mice
(p < 0.05; Fig. 4
). Thus, CT efficiently
abrogated the induction of oral tolerance independently of
CD8+ T cells.
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CT adjuvant abrogated the induction of oral tolerance
independently of CD8+ T cells, probably by promoting
the priming of productive rather than suppressive CD4+ T
cells (6). However, earlier studies have suggested that CT may directly
impair gut CD8+ T cell functions (5, 26), and such a
mechanism could affect oral tolerance differently in
CD8-/- and wt mice. Hence, we asked whether CT could
break already established oral tolerance. Mice were fed Ag to achieve a
tolerant state before single or repeated systemic or oral challenge
immunizations with Ag plus CT adjuvant (see Fig. 1
). We found that oral
exposures to KLH plus CT adjuvant did not alter the level of tolerance
established by feeding native Ag (Fig. 5
). Thus, similar results were found
regardless of whether one or even three oral doses of CT adjuvant were
administered over a longer period of time, as evidenced by the strongly
reduced anti-KLH SFC and IFN-
, responses (Fig. 5
). Moreover,
IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 were significantly reduced
(p < 0.05) in these mice, illustrating that
established oral tolerance of Th2 CD4+ T cell functions
largely remained resistant to treatment with Ag plus CT adjuvant (Fig. 6
). Thus, CT adjuvant was unable to break
already established oral tolerance in both CD8-/- and wt
mice, indicating that T cell-mediated immune regulation following oral
Ag exposure is resistant to immunomodulation by CT adjuvant.
Furthermore, in mice fed KLH, the i.p. administration of CT instead of
RIBI did not affect the level of suppression observed, i.e., in KLH-fed
CD8-/- mice the splenic SFC response to KLH plus CT
priming was 9,611 ± 4,308 (mean anti-KLH SFC value ± SE
of two separate experiments) compared with that in unfed mice, which
was 19,484 ± 5,558 anti-KLH SFC/107 cells.
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Having the advantage of a potent mucosal adjuvant, we next
explored whether local IgA immunity could be induced by oral
immunizations even if the mice had been made tolerant by prior feeding
of Ag (see Fig. 1
). As demonstrated previously, feeding KLH alone gave
little or no anti-KLH IgA SFC responses in the gut LP (Fig. 7
) (6). After repeated oral immunizations
with KLH plus CT adjuvant, we found that KLH-tolerant wt mice
demonstrated significant reduction (p < 0.05),
roughly 60%, in their local gut IgA anti-KLH SFC responses
compared with nontolerant control mice (Fig. 7
). By contrast, the local
IgA response of tolerized CD8-/- mice after mucosal
challenge with KLH plus CT adjuvant was of similar magnitude to that in
nontolerant control mice (Fig. 7
). Thus, whereas oral feeding of KLH
affected both systemic and local responsiveness to the Ag in wt mice,
only systemic, but not local, responses were reduced in the
CD8-/- mice. In addition, significantly reduced serum
anti-KLH IgA titers following oral immunizations were observed only
in tolerant wt, but not in tolerant CD8-/-, mice (Fig. 7
). These findings suggested that CD8+ T cells may play a
critical down-regulatory role in the normal gut mucosal immune system.
Also in support of such an idea, we consistently observed two- to
threefold higher gut IgA anti-KLH SFC responses in PBS-fed
CD8-/- compared with wt mice following oral immunizations
with KLH plus CT (Fig. 7
).
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| Discussion |
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The normal appearance of oral tolerance in CD8-/- mice is
consistent with the results of several earlier studies showing that
feeding Ag induces systemic hyporesponsiveness independently of
CD8+ T cells but requiring CD4+ T cells (13, 23, 28, 37). Thus, although previous studies have documented the
importance of CD8+ T suppressor cells, these cells do not
appear to be critical for establishing oral tolerance to conventional
protein Ags (11, 14, 15, 22, 38). Nevertheless, the reduced intestinal
and serum IgA responses that we observed in tolerized wt, but not in
CD8-/-, mice indicated that local suppression in the
normal gut mucosa most likely relies on suppressive CD8+ T
cells. This down-regulatory effect of gut CD8+ T cells also
extended to an unrelated Ag when given orally together with KLH and CT
adjuvant, indicating that regulatory gut CD8+ T cells can
confer bystander suppression (39). The lack of a bystander effect in
CD8-/- mice further strongly supports a role for
CD8+ T cells in the local suppression of mucosal immunity.
Moreover, the tolerant mice were not simply immunosuppressed because
the response to OVA in the absence of KLH or to CT itself was
unaffected by prior feeding with KLH. Therefore, we propose that
tolerance following feeding of conventional soluble protein Ags appears
to be Ag specific, highly compartmentalized, and require
CD8+ T cells for local intestinal suppression, while
CD4+ T cells are responsible for systemic
hyporesponsiveness. Also, feeding of Ag coordinately promoted
hyporesponsiveness in both the systemic and local intestinal immune
systems, thus favoring the theory that systemic tolerance and local
productive IgA immunity are mutually exclusive phenomena. Although few
studies have simultaneously addressed the issue of tolerance and
productive IgA immunity, this idea is further corroborated by Stok et
al. and Elson et al., who also found a suppressed local IgA response in
conjunction with oral tolerance (26, 40). Since local intestinal and
serum IgA responses were unaffected in CD8-/- mice
despite strong systemic hyporesponsiveness, it is likely that gut
CD4+ T cells at local inductive sites, i.e., the PP and
small lymphoid aggregates, may be more difficult to tolerize than SP by
feeding Ag. Such an assumption finds support in a recent study by Marth
et al. that showed increased IFN-
production in PP after feeding Ag,
while SP demonstrated decreased IFN-
formation (41).
The MHC restriction for activation of CD4+ and
CD8+ suppressive T cells argue for the existence of at
least two pathways or sites for induction of oral tolerance. Most in
vivo data identify the PP as an inductive site for both oral tolerance
and productive IgA immunity (9, 42, 43, 44). However, epithelial cells
express both MHC class I and II surface molecules, and in vitro studies
have provided compelling evidence that the gut epithelium can
preferentially stimulate suppressive CD8+ T cells, even
though CD4+ T cells may also be generated (37, 45, 46). In
addition, recent elegant studies have demonstrated that epithelial
cells may present Ag to CD8+ T cells in the context of the
CD1 molecule, a nonclassical MHC that is only distantly related to the
MHC class I molecules (47, 48). Furthermore, the newly described
membrane protein, gp180, on the epithelial cell apparently can act as a
cofactor together with CD1 in stimulating CD8+ T cell
activation (49). Thus, the surface expression of the CD8 molecule is
critical for these interactions between epithelial cells and gut T
cells, in particular for the activation of regulatory CD8+
T cells that are TCR
ß+ (47, 49). Of note, it is the
CD8
-chain, deleted in the CD8-/- mice, that has been
shown to play important signaling functions (50). Whether the
TCR
+ CD8+ cells have a regulatory role in
the gut of normal mice is at present poorly understood. Several recent
studies have provided strong evidence that TCR
+
CD8+ T cells may fulfill a down-regulatory role on immune
responses by inhibiting cell-mediated immunity (51, 52, 53). Because of the
lack of CD8-expression and the dominance of
TCR
+CD4-CD8- cells, it is,
however, likely that the IE T cells are nonfunctional in
CD8-/- mice.
Previous studies have indicated that the quality of tolerance affecting
CD4+ T cells after feeding Ag may be influenced by the dose
of Ag used (20, 21, 54). Thus, a high dose of Ag, e.g., a single dose
>20 mg of OVA or repeated milligram doses of other proteins (22, 35, 36, 41, 54), has been associated with T cell anergy or deletion (17, 18), which affected both Th1 and Th2 cytokine production. On the
contrary, microgram doses of Ag were found to induce active suppression
in which increased TGF-ß production, most often found in conjunction
with increased production of Th2 cytokines, is thought to play a
critical role (1, 12, 13). We found that oral tolerance in
CD8-/- mice was strictly dose dependent, and only the
higher doses of KLH produced significant suppression of Ab and Th1 and
Th2 responses. Therefore, the tolerant state in the
CD8-/- and wt mice fed KLH four times resembled that
found with high doses of other Ags (35, 41, 54). It is interesting to
note that recent studies of oral tolerance in IL-4- or
IFN-
R-deficient mice, performed by our group and that of Garside et
al., have indicated that the systemic hyporesponsive state achieved by
feeding Ag does not appear to require Th1 or Th2 CD4+ T
cells to develop (34, 35, 55).
Whether high and low dose oral tolerance represent uniquely different mechanisms for the control of immune reactivity against ingested proteins is not completely clear (1, 2). For example, such an idea does not explain why a low dose that generates active suppression mediated by CD4+ and perhaps CD8+ T cells secreting TGF-ß would be overtaken by a process leading to enhanced anergy and deletion among T cells when a higher dose is used. The alternative interpretation would be that these protocols exhibit variable degrees of the same feature, i.e., the generation of regulatory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells that exert immune suppression, leading to anergy and/or deletion. Whether such cells are short- or long-lived is currently unknown, but the duration of the oral tolerant state as observed in animal models would certainly favor the latter (1, 2). Moreover, this hypothesis would offer a more attractive theory because it would allow suppressive T cells to coexist with processes leading to anergy and deletion. In support of the idea that actively suppressive CD4+ T cells may be induced in CD8-/- mice, we were partly successful in adoptively transferring hyporesponsiveness by splenocytes from Ag-fed donor mice. Nevertheless, additional experiments will be required to clarify whether such regulatory cells can be found in Ag-fed CD8-/- mice.
It is clear from this study and our previous work using CD8-/- mice that the adjuvant affect of CT promotes both Th1 and Th2 CD4+ T cells and does not require the presence of CD8+ T cells (4, 31). In addition, one important message born out of the present study is that the CT adjuvant system may be used safely for enhancing the effectiveness of oral vaccines. We found that CT abrogated the induction of oral tolerance but was unable to break already established tolerance. This finding is of significant importance for mucosal vaccine development, and the result agrees well with a study by Nedrud et al. demonstrating that CT did not augment serum Ab levels against some common food Ags (56). If the hypothesis is correct that oral tolerance and productive IgA immunity are reciprocally regulated, then we require adjuvants in oral vaccines to circumvent the tolerance pathway to achieve productive IgA immunity. It is, therefore, reassuring that one of the most powerful mucosal adjuvants yet described, CT, does not cause loss of established tolerance, e.g., against food Ags. Although CT is unlikely to be used clinically because of its toxicity, this understanding should apply to adjuvant systems derived from CT, i.e., nontoxic mutants of the holotoxin or our newly developed nontoxic adjuvant, the CTA1-DD gene fusion protein (57). Whether it also applies to other mucosal adjuvant systems, such as iscoms, awaits to be investigated.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
2 Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Nils Lycke, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Goteborg, S-413 46 Goteborg, Sweden. E-mail address: ![]()
3 Abbreviations used in this paper: CT, cholera toxin; IE, intraepithelial; LP, lamina propria; PP, Peyers patches; CD8-/-, CD8-deficient mice; wt, wild type; KLH, keyhole limpet hemocyanin; SP, spleen; AP, alkaline phosphatase; SFC, spot-forming cells; NC, nitrocellulose; HRP, horseradish peroxidase. ![]()
Received for publication April 17, 1997. Accepted for publication October 3, 1997.
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receptor deficient mice exhibit impaired gut mucosal immune responses but intact oral tolerance. Immunology. 92:60.[Medline]

T cells that prevent murine insulin-dependent diabetes. J. Exp. Med. 184:2167.
T cells from tolerized
ß T cell receptor (TCR)-deficient mice inhibit contact sensitivity-effector T cells in vivo, and their interferon-
production in vitro. J. Exp. Med. 184:2129.
TCR+ cells suppress experimental autoimmune uveitis. Eur. J. Immunol. 26:2140.[Medline]
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J. Li, P. Hu, L. A. Khawli, and A. L. Epstein Complete Regression of Experimental Solid Tumors by Combination LEC/chTNT-3 Immunotherapy and CD25+ T-Cell Depletion Cancer Res., December 1, 2003; 63(23): 8384 - 8392. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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P. L. Ogra, H. Faden, and R. C. Welliver Vaccination Strategies for Mucosal Immune Responses Clin. Microbiol. Rev., April 1, 2001; 14(2): 430 - 445. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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A. C. Lepage, D. Buzoni-Gatel, D. T. Bout, and L. H. Kasper Gut-Derived Intraepithelial Lymphocytes Induce Long Term Immunity Against Toxoplasma gondii J. Immunol., November 1, 1998; 161(9): 4902 - 4908. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
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