Journal
VETERINARY IMMUNOLOGY AND IMMUNOPATHOLOGY
Volume 133, Issue 1, Pages 40-50Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.vetimm.2009.07.002
Keywords
Icelandic horses; Insect bite hypersensitivity; Parasites; IgE; Horse tapeworm; Anoplocephala; ELISA; Interleukin-4; Interleukin-10; TGF-beta 1
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Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation [310000-116803/1]
- Agricultural Productivity Fund of Iceland
- Vetsuisse Faculty, Universities of Bern and Zurich, Switzerland
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Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is an IgE-mediated dermatitis of horses caused by bites of Culicoides spp. IBH does not occur in Iceland where Culicoides are absent. However, following importation into continental Europe where Culicoides are present, >= 50% of Icelandic horses (1st generation) develop IBH but <= 10% of their offspring born in Europe (2nd generation) do so. Recently, we showed that PBMC from 1st generation horses produce more IL-4 than 2nd generation horses. Since helminths and allergens induce Th2 responses, we investigated whether horses domiciled in Iceland are Th2-biased, and whether this is determined by helminth infection. We compared the parasite burden and T cell responses between Icelandic horses living in Iceland or Switzerland. Horses in Iceland have higher faecal egg counts, higher tapeworm-specific IgG(T) levels and higher total serum IgE levels than horses in Switzerland. Nevertheless, horses in Iceland displayed a low proportion of IL-4-producing cells in PBMC cultures after polyclonal or parasite extracts stimulation. No IL-4-producing cells were found in PBMC from horses after stimulation by Culicoides extract. Addition of anti-IL-10 and anti-TGF-beta 1 to PBMC cultures of horses in Iceland increased the proportion of IL-4-producing cells after polyclonal or parasite antigens stimulation but not stimulation with Culicoides extract. This paralleled the high levels of IL-10 and TGF-beta 1 found in supernatants from PBMC cultures of horses in Iceland. Collectively, horses living in Iceland have a high parasite burden but low IL-4 production. This supports the hypothesis that heavy helminth infections have a suppressive effect on IL-4 production mediated by IL-10 and TGF-beta 1. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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