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The intrusion of airborne allergens into airways elicits eosinophilic inflammation, as represented by bronchial asthma. It has been shown that excessive amounts of allergen in murine trachea lead to an unexpected evasion of deleterious eosinophilic inflammation by inducing T cell tolerance. In the present study, the mechanisms of tracheal high-dose tolerance are examined with regard to accessory cell functions and the effects of pro-inflammatory cytokines on tolerance. Antigen-induced tracheal eosinophilia was suppressed on instillation of high doses of antigen into the trachea, while concurrent instillation of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) with the antigen restored the diminished responses. The restoration of eosinophilic infiltration by GM-CSF occurred in parallel with an increase in interleukin (IL)-4 production by CD4 + T cells from the mediastinal lymph nodes. This was found to reflect the empowerment of antigen-presenting cells by GM-CSF, because the impaired ability of Ia + cells from the tolerant mice to stimulate IL-4-producing T cells is restored by GM-CSF administration. The prevention of tolerance by up-regulating accessory cell functions is a feature unique to GM-CSF, because another pro-inflammatory cytokine, IL-iβ, failed to empower antigen-presenting cells. Thus, besides the induction of transforming growth factor-β-secreting CD4 + T cells, high-dose tolerance in the trachea includes an impairment of the accessory cell functions that support IL-4 production from T cells, which was reversed by GM-CSF. This report is the first demonstration that GM-CSF breaks the T cell tolerance of IL-4-producing T helper cells.

The induction of peripheral tolerance is one of the feasible approaches for the control of autoimmunities and allergies. Tolerance induction in the intestine has been studied extensively and therapeutic applications to autoimmunities are in progress, whereas tolerance in the respiratory tract is poorly investigated. We examined the immunoregulatory mechanisms for evading exaggerated inflammatory responses in the murine airway mucosa. Administration of an optimal dose of ovalbumin (OVA) to the trachea elicited eosinophilic inflammation in the trachea of OVA/aluminum hydroxide-sensitized BALB/c mice, whereas higher doses were unable to do so. This failure paralleled the downregulation of interleukin-4 production by mediastinal lymph node (LN) T cells. This high-dose tolerance was attributable to the mechanisms of antigen (Ag)-specific suppression, because the adoptive transfer of CD4(+) LN T cells from the OVA-tolerant mice inhibited the OVA-specific, but not irrelevant Ag KLH-specific, eosinophilic responses. The inhibitory effects were neutralized by the intratracheal administration of anti-transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, but not that of anti-interferon (IFN)-gamma, monoclonal antibodies, indicating that the high-dose tolerance was mediated by secreted TGF-beta, but not by the dominance of transferred T helper (Th)1 cells over Th2 cells. The pivotal role of TGF-beta was reinforced by the finding that the LN cells from the OVA-tolerant mice produced TGF-beta in response to the in vitro Ag stimulation. These results demonstrate a novel regulatory mechanism in the airway: that TGF-beta secreted by T cells plays an important role in the downmodulation of the immune responses to high doses of Ag which might otherwise induce deleterious inflammation in the airway mucosal tissues.

A recent increase in allergic disorders has coincided with a decrease in infections, including tuberculosis. Although an inverse association between tuberculin responses and atopic disorders was reported, it was not known how T-helper (Th)1-biased immune responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis influenced Th2-dominant responses to allergens. We examined whether M. tuberculosis could modulate ovalbumin (OVA)-induced eosinophilic inflammation in the murine trachea in a manner that transcended the barrier of antigen specificity. We found that CD4(+) T cells primed with OVA in complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) inhibited OVA-induced tracheal eosinophilia through interferon (IFN)-gamma secretion. Immunization with an irrelevant antigen in CFA or with OVA in incomplete Freund's adjuvant failed to induce suppressor cells. In vitro experiments confirmed that both M. tuberculosis and OVA (as opposed to either one alone) were necessary to evoke polarized development toward a Th1-like phenotype through interleukin-12 secretion. These results indicate that exposure to an allergen along with M. tuberculosis switches development of allergen-specific T cells toward a Th1 phenotype, which, in turn, downregulates allergic manifestations in an antigen-specific manner. The possible implications of these results are discussed in the context of the causal relationship between a decrease in tuberculosis and an increase in allergic disorders.