Oral administration of soluble antigen can induce peripheral tolerance to the antigen. This study was conducted to evaluate whether gamma-irradiated ovalbumin (OVA) can induce oral tolerance. To investigate this, we administrated intact or irradiated OVA to mice, induced allergic response using intact OVA and alum, then compared humoral and cellular immune responses. Mice treated with gammairradiated OVA had less OVA-specific IgE compared with those who were administered intact OVA. There was no difference in levels of OVA-specific IgG+A+M, IgG1, and IgG2a. Splenocytes of mice administered irradiated OVA showed similar OVA-specific T cell proliferation and secretion of IFN-γ and IL-4. However, there was an increase in IL-2 and a decrease of IL-6 secretion in mice treated with irradiated OVA. These results indicate that gamma-irradiated OVA have similar effects to intact OVA on antigen tolerance.
Keywords: IgE; allergy; gamma-irradiation; ovalbumin; tolerance.