Profiles of cytokine production in recipients of transfer factors
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Abstract
Transfer factors (TF) are proteins that transfer the ability to express cell-mediated immunity from immune donors to non-immune recipients. The mechanisms of these effects have not been defined. The experiments described in this report were undertaken to test the hypothesis that a mechanism through which the beneficial effects of TF are expressed in clinical situation is through “education” of the immune system to produce certain cytokines in response to antigenic stimulation.
BALB/c mice were sensitized to Herpes simplexvirus (HSV) either by sublethal systemic or cutaneous infections by administration of a HSV-specific TF. One week later their spleen cells were collected and single cell suspensions were stimulated in vitro with irradiated HSV or concanavalin A. Culture supernatants were collected and assayed for content of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10 and IFN-g.
Spleen cells from infected mice responded to concanavalin A and to HSV by secreting large amounts of IL-2 and IFN-g, modest amounts of IL-10, and no IL-4. Transfer factor recipients produced similar cytokine profiles in response to concavalin A. These mice, however, responded to HSV by secreting IFN-g, but no IL-2. Thus, TF treatment selectively affects cytokine production in response to antigenic stimulation.
Key words
cell-mediated immunity cytokines transfer factorAbbreviations
- c.equ.
cell equivalent
- CMI
cell-mediated immunity
- HSV
Herpes simplex virus
- IFN-g
interferon gamma
- pfu
plaque forming units
- TF
transfer factor
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