Cellular immunology
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Cellular immunology · Sep 1994
Oral tolerance to myelin basic protein induces regulatory TGF-beta-secreting T cells in Peyer's patches of SJL mice.
Oral administration of myelin basic protein (MBP) is an effective means of suppressing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). In the Lewis rat model, we have previously shown that this effect is mediated by active suppression as T lymphocytes from animals orally tolerized to MBP suppress in vitro immune responses and in vivo adoptively transfer disease protection to naive recipients. This effect is mediated by the cytokine TGF-beta which is secreted by T cells from orally tolerized animals after being triggered by the oral tolerogen. ⋯ Furthermore, cells from Peyer's patches of animals fed MBP adoptively transferred protection to actively induced EAE. Thus, MBP-specific TGF-beta-secreting regulatory cells recovered from Peyer's patches after a single oral administration of MBP are not evident as measured by proliferation, but are capable of suppressing in vitro and in vivo cell-mediated immune responses. Peyer's patches appear to be an important site for the induction of cells which mediate the active suppression component of oral tolerance.