Abstract
Our understanding immune response mechanisms to chemical allergens has been
limited. It was partly due to the nature of antigens, recognized by T cells, not
being well characterized. In the present study, we examined a hypothesis that a
reactive chemical allergen, toluene diisocyanate (TDI), react with autologous
proteins, thereby inducing T cell responses to the modified self protein in
vivo. TDI-human serum albumin (HSA) conjugates were prepared and the presence of
antigenic epitopes on the TDI-HSA conjugate was confirmed by IgE ELISA. We
examined proliferative and cytokine production responses in TDI-induced asthma
patients using the TDI-HSA conjugate as an antigen. Although proliferative
responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were not detected,
production of IFN-γ was observed in both PBMC and T cell lines obtained from
some newly-diagnosed patients by ELISA. Mitogen-inducible IL-4 production was
also detected in some T cell lines. Results of this study may have two
implications. One is that presentation of haptenized-self protein to the immune
system may induce activation of T cells. The other is that T cells responding to
this modified self protein may play a role in the pathogenesis of the chemical
allergen-induced asthma by producing cytokines such as IFN-γ and possibly
IL-4.