title: Suppression of murine experimental autoimmune hepatitis by T-cell vaccination or immunosuppression.
abstract: Patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) usually require immunosuppressive therapy for many years, if not for a lifetime. Experimental immunotherapy such as T-cell vaccination aims at manipulating the immune system in such a way that autoimmunity is specifically regulated to enable long-lasting correction of the disease process. We aimed to test the feasibility of T-cell vaccination as well as conventional immunosuppression in the murine model of experimental autoimmune hepatitis (EAH). EAH was induced in 5- to 7-week-old BALB/c mice by immunization with syngeneic liver homogenate in complete Freund's adjuvant. For T-cell vaccination, splenocytes were removed from animals 14 days after induction of EAH and from control animals, and activated in vitro by mitogen stimulation with Concanavalin A (Con A). Activated T cells were irradiated and injected at 5 x 10(7) cells per animal as T-cell vaccine. Immunosuppression in control animals was performed with prednisolone with or without azathioprine. T-cell vaccination with T cells from EAH animals, but not with irrelevant T cells, was able to protect animals from EAH, reducing the average disease severity from 2.2 (+/-0.3) to 0.5 (+/-0.3) (P < .01). T-cell vaccination was also able to treat EAH, because application of the vaccine 2 weeks after induction of the disease significantly reduced disease activity at week 4 from 2.4 (+/-0.4) to 1.1 (+/-0.2) (P < .05). Both passive transfer of disease and the capacity to protect by T-cell vaccination was mediated by CD4 T cells. Specific cellular recognition of activated disease-inducing T cells could be detected in vaccinated animals. Immunosuppressive drugs could also suppress EAH. Thus, T-cell vaccination in EAH is feasible and effective. Stimulation of a regulatory T-cell network is the likely mechanism of action by which T-cell vaccination can suppress EAH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Lohse
authors.forename: H P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Dienes
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Meyer zum Büschenfelde
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D019693:Hepatitis, Autoimmune / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology*; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination
chemical_list: D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell