Invariant NKT cells are more abundant in peanut-allergic adults and a subset of CD8+ iNKT cells are depleted after peanut oil exposure.

Introduction: Peanut allergy is one of the most prevalent food allergies globally. Currently, most research into the mechanisms involved in protein allergy focuses on the protein allergens under investigation, and information on the function of accompanying compounds, such as lipids, is scarce. Thus, this research investigates the role of peanut-associated lipids and invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells in peanut allergy using a novel, human, in vitro assay. Methods: PBMCs from non-allergic and peanut-allergic subjects were stimulated with the glycolipid, α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer), over 14 days for iNKT cell expansion. Autologous dendritic cells (DCs) were stimulated with either peanut oil, the lipid-binding peanut allergen, Ara h 8, or both peanut oil and Ara h 8. The expanded iNKT cells were then immunomagnetically isolated and co-cultured for 5 h with autologous DCs, and cytokine expression was measured by flow cytometry. Results: A 5-fold higher iNKT cell population was observed in peanut-allergic subject peripheral blood compared to non-allergic controls. In all subjects, conventional flow analysis highlighted iNKTs co-cultured with autologous α-GalCer-pulsed DCs displayed increased IL-4 and IFN-y secretion within 5 hours of co-culture. A 10-parameter unsupervised clustering analysis of iNKT phenotype found significantly more CD3+CD8+CD25+IL-4+IL-5+IL-10+IFNγ+ cells in non-allergic adults following culture with peanut oil. Conclusion: For the first time, we show iNKT cells are more abundant in peanut-allergic adults compared to non-allergic adults, and peanut lipid-exposed iNKT cells resulted in the identification of a subset of CD8+ iNKT cells which was significantly lower in peanut-allergic adults. Thus, this study proposes a role for iNKT cells and peanut allergen-associated lipids in peanut allergy.

Human Allergen-Specific IgG Subclass Antibodies Measured Using ImmunoCAP Technology.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of human IgG subclass antibody responses to various allergens has been hampered by a lack of reliable standardized assays. The aim here was to develop quantitative immunoassays for human IgG1, IgG2, and IgG3 antibodies using ImmunoCAP® technology and to evaluate their application. METHODS: Enzyme conjugates with isotype-specific monoclonal antibodies and calibrators composed of purified myeloma paraproteins were developed for each assay and used together with other standardized assay reagents for the Phadia® 100 instrument. The calibrators were adjusted to the international reference preparation IRP 67/86. The assays were characterized and used together with other standard ImmunoCAP assays to measure antibodies to various allergens in preliminary studies. RESULTS: The new assays had limits of quantitation of 1.0 (IgG1), 4.6 (IgG2), and 0.04 mgA/L (IgG3), and coefficients of variation of <20%. Only some minor cross-reactivity with IgG2 was observed for the specific IgG1 assay. The specific IgG2 assay showed a bias for the allotype G2m(23) and compensation factors were used to adjust the measured concentrations accordingly. Preliminary studies indicated a strong and stable IgG4 antibody response to ß-lactoglobulin in healthy individuals, a high IgG1 and even higher IgG2 antibody response to house dust mite in sensitized and nonsensitized subjects, and a mixed IgG subclass response to venom allergens in allergic patients with increasing IgG4 antibody levels during venom immunotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: The new research assays are valuable tools for immunological studies, enabling the characterization of antibody profiles using a standardized approach, and facilitating data interpretation and the comparison of results across studies.

Human gut-specific homeostatic dendritic cells are generated from blood precursors by the gut microenvironment.

BACKGROUND: Dendritic cells (DC) dictate not only the type of T-cell immunity, but also homing patterns of T cells in mice. In humans, we characterized normal human gut DC and tested whether gut-specific homeostatic DC could be generated from blood precursors by factors in the gut microenvironment. METHODS: We characterized the phenotype and function of healthy human gut DC compared with blood and skin DC, and studied whether conditioning of blood DC in the presence of colonic biopsy supernatants (Bx-SN) induced gut-like phenotype and functions. RESULTS: Blood DC mostly expressed both gut and skin homing markers, indicating potential to migrate to both major immune surface organs, and induced multi-homing T cells. However, DC within gut or skin did not demonstrate this multi-homing phenotype, were tissue-specific, and induced tissue-specific T cells. Human gut DC were less stimulatory for allogeneic T cells than their dermal and blood counterparts. Human blood DC cultured in vitro lost homing marker expression. Conditioning of human enriched blood DC with colonic Bx-SN from healthy controls induced a gut-homing phenotype and a homeostatic profile. Moreover, Bx-SN-conditioned DC demonstrated a restricted T-cell stimulatory capacity and preferentially induced gut-specific T cells. Retinoic acid and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) mediated the acquisition of the gut-homing and homeostatic properties, respectively, induced by colonic Bx-SN on blood enriched DC. CONCLUSIONS: Tissue-specific factors manipulate immunity via modulating characteristics of DC and may provide tools to generate tissue-specific immunotherapy.