REGULATORY T-CELL CLONES INDUCED BY ORAL TOLERANCE - SUPPRESSION OF AUTOIMMUNE ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a cell-mediated autoimmune disease that serves as an animal model for multiple sclerosis. Oral administration of myelin basic protein (MBP) suppresses EAE by inducing peripheral tolerance. T cell clones were isolated from the mesenteric lymph nodes of SJL mice that had been orally tolerized to MBP. These clones were CD4(+) and were structurally identical to T helper cell type 1 (T(H)1) encephalitogenic CD4(+) clones in T cell receptor usage, major histocompatibility complex restriction, and epitope recognition. However, they produced transforming growth factor-beta with various amounts of interleukin-4 and interleukin-10 and suppressed EAE induced with either MBP or proteolipid protein. Thus, mucosally derived T(H)2-like clones induced by oral antigen can actively regulate immune responses in vivo and may represent a different subset of T cells.