title: HLA-DQ-controlled T cell response to soluble egg antigen of Schistosoma japonicum in humans.
abstract: We analysed regulatory mechanisms of the human T cell response to soluble egg antigen (SEA) of Schistosoma japonicum in vitro. SEA is a crude antigen mixture containing numerous epitopes. We obtained SEA-induced T cell lines from five patients with chronic schistosomiasis japonica, and tested their proliferative response to molecular weight fractions of SEA. Although all T cell lines showed strong responses to crude SEA, there was a heterogeneity in fraction-driven responsiveness. All but one T cell line tested failed to respond to SEA fraction I (mol. wt greater than 18 kD). One patient who was typed as HLA-DQw1/w4, did not show proliferation of CD4+ T cells to fraction I; however, a fraction I-driven helper T cell response was observed when we added HU-11 monoclonal antibody specific for HLA-DQw1/w4. This indicated that the patient had helper T cells to the fraction even though their response was suppressed. Because HLA-DQ had an effect on functional expression of suppressor T cells, it was suggested that there was epitope-specific regulation of the T cell response to SEA, and HLA-DQ-controlled immune suppression might be involved in the regulatory system in human chronic schistosome infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Okayama University Medical School, Japan.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ohta
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Edahiro
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yasukawa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hosaka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000276:immunology*; D002460:Cell Line; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation / Q000276:immunology; D012549:Schistosoma japonicum / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000947:Antigens, Helminth; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens