title: Anti-IL-4 diminishes in vivo priming for antigen-specific IL-4 production by T cells.
abstract: Treatment of mice with neutralizing monoclonal anti-IL-4 antibodies at the time of immunization with keyhole limpet hemocyanin causes significant inhibition of priming of T cells for the production of IL-4 upon subsequent in vitro challenge. BALB/c mice received a single injection of anti-IL-4 at the time of immunization. T cells purified from spleen and lymph nodes were obtained at 6 to 7 days and at 30 to 75 days after priming. In the 6- to 7-day group, IL-4 production in response to keyhole limpet hemocyanin among the recipients of anti-IL-4 was reduced by more than twofold in four of four experiments, when low density T cells were challenged. In some, but not all, of these experiments, production of IFN-gamma was enhanced at least twofold. Measurement of frequency of IL-4-producing, keyhole limpet hemocyanin-specific T cells indicated a twofold reduction in the anti-IL-4-treated mice. Among cells obtained between 30 and 75 days after priming, production of IL-4 was diminished in four of four cases in high density cells and three of four cases in low density cells. T cells were also prepared from mice that received a secondary in vivo challenge 90 to 105 days after priming. T cells from boosted donors that had received a single injection of anti-IL-4 at the time of priming showed diminished production of IL-4 in each experiment. By contrast, treatment with anti-IL-4 at the time of secondary challenge did not diminish IL-4-producing capacity of cells from mice that were primed in the absence of anti-IL-4. These results indicate that IL-4 is important in vivo in priming T cells to develop into IL-4-producing cells and indicate an important physiologic role for IL-4 in the establishment of lymphokine-producing phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Lautenberg Center for General and Tumor Immunology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: S Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Ben-Sasson
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Paul
mesh_terms: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000939:Epitopes; D005260:Female; D006433:Hemocyanins / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D007114:Immunization; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000276:Adjuvants, Immunologic; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000939:Epitopes; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D015847:Interleukin-4; D006433:Hemocyanins; C032808:keyhole-limpet hemocyanin