Epicutaneous immunization with TNP-Ig antigen induces CD11c

The contact hypersensitivity response (CHS) is a mouse model of allergic contact dermatitis in humans. The reaction is classified as type IV hypersensitivity and underlies many autoimmune disorders. Experiments employing the CHS model in wild-type mice showed that the protein antigen applied to the skin in the form of a gauze patch one week before the induction of Th1-dependent CHS was an effective strategy to reduce the inflammatory response in the skin. The approach of epicutaneous (EC) immunization also effectively suppressed the inflammatory response in various mouse models of autoimmune diseases. To evaluate the potential of EC immunization to suppress T cell-dependent immune response in humans, we used HLA-DR4 tg mice, which express the human DRB1*0401 allele and lack all endogenous mouse MHC class II genes. Our data show that EC immunization with TNP-conjugated protein antigen followed by induction of CHS to trinitrochlorobenzene (TNCB), effectively suppressed the CHS response as described by ear swelling, MPO activity in ear extracts, and the number of TCRβ

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Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.