Smith, Karen A, Gray, Nicola J, Saleh, Femi, Cheek, Elizabeth, Frew, Anthony J, Kern, Florian and Tarzi, Michael D (2013) Characterisation of CD154+ T cells following ex vivo allergen stimulation illustrates distinct T cell responses to seasonal and perennial allergens in allergic and non-allergic individuals. BMC Immunology, 14 (1). ISSN 1471-2172

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Abstract

Background
Allergic sensitisation has been ascribed to a dysregulated relationship between allergen-specific Th1, Th2 and regulatory T cells. We sought to utilise our short-term CD154 detection method to further analyse the relationship between these T cell subsets and investigate differences between seasonal and perennial allergens. Using peripheral blood samples from grass-allergic, cat-allergic and healthy non-atopic subjects, we compared the frequencies and phenotype of CD154-positive T helper cells following stimulation with seasonal (grass) and perennial (cat dander) allergens.

Results
We identified a higher frequency of CD154+ T cells in grass-allergic individuals compared to healthy controls; this difference was not evident following stimulation with cat allergen. Activated Th1, Th2 and Tr1-like cells, that co-express IFNγ, IL4 and IL10, respectively, were identified in varying proportions in grass-allergic, cat-allergic and non-allergic individuals. We confirmed a close correlation between Th1, Th2 and Tr1-like cell frequency in non-allergic volunteers, such that the three parameters increased together to maintain a low Th2: Th1 ratio. This relationship was dysregulated in grass-allergic individuals with no correlation between the T cell subsets and a higher Th2: Th1 ratio. We confirmed previous reports of a late-differentiated T cell phenotype in response to seasonal allergens compared to early-differentiated T cell responses to perennial allergens.

Conclusions
The findings confirm our existing work illustrating an important balance between Th1, Th2 and Tr1-like responses to allergens in health, where Th2 responses are frequently observed, but balanced by Th1 and regulatory responses. We confirm previous tetramer-based reports of phenotypic differences in T cells responding to seasonal and perennial allergens.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Allergen-specific T cell; Cat dander allergy; CD154; Grass pollen allergy; ex vivo phenotyping; Flow cytometry
Schools and Departments:	Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Brighton and Sussex Medical School Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Clinical and Experimental Medicine Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Division of Medical Education
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Depositing User:	Helen Webb - Library
Date Deposited:	15 Aug 2014 11:03
Last Modified:	02 Jul 2019 17:47
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/49603

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