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Field AC, Caccavelli L, Fillion J, Kuhn J, Mandet C, Druet P, Bellon B: Neonatal induction of tolerance to T (h) 2-mediated autoimmunity in rats. Int Immunol. 2000 Oct;12(10):1467-77. Brown-Norway (BN) rats are highly susceptible to drug-induced immune dysregulations and when injected with mercuric chloride (HgCl (2)) or sodium aurothiopropanolsulfonate (ATPS), they develop a syndrome characterized by a polyclonal B cell activation depending upon CD4 (+) T (h) 2 cells that recognize self-MHC class II molecules. Since peripheral tolerance of T (h) 2 cells might be crucial in the prevention of immunological manifestations such as allergy, establishing conditions for inducing tolerance to HgCl (2)- or ATPS-mediated immune manifestations appeared to be of large interest. We report here that BN rats neonatally injected with HgCl (2): (i) do not develop the mercury disease, (ii) remain resistant to HgCl (2)-induced autoimmunity at 8 weeks of age and later, provided they are regularly exposed to HgCl (2), (iii) are still susceptible to ATPS-induced immune manifestations, and (iv) exhibit spleen cells that adoptively transfer tolerance to HgCl (2)-induced autoimmunity in naive, slightly irradiated, syngeneic recipients. These findings demonstrate that dominant specific tolerance can be neonatally induced using a chemical otherwise responsible for T (h) 2-mediated autoimmunity. |
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