Recent studies have demonstrated that mast cells not only mediate inflammatory reactions in type I allergy but also play an important role in adaptive immunity. In the present study, we investigated the effects of interferon-α, which shares the same receptor as IFN-β, on human cord blood-derived mast cells. Mast cells produced TNF-α, and IL-10, and expressed OX40 ligand upon activation by crosslinking of FcɛRI. When treated with interferon-α, TNF-α production was decreased while IL-10 and TGF-β productions were increased. Furthermore, flow cytometric analysis revealed that interferon-α downregulated expression OX40 ligand on mast cells which is crucial for mast cell-T cell interaction. We confirmed that the viability of mast cells was not affected by interferon-α treatment. Accordingly, interferon-α-treated mast cells induced lower levels of CD4+ T cell proliferation compared with those without interferon-α treatment. These results suggest that type I interferons suppress T cell immune responses through their regulatory effects on mast cells.
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This work was partly supported by grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan.
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Fujita, T., Kambe, N., Uchiyama, T. et al. Type I Interferons Attenuate T Cell Activating Functions of Human Mast Cells by Decreasing TNF-α Production and OX40 Ligand Expression While Increasing IL-10 Production. J Clin Immunol 26, 512–518 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-006-9043-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10875-006-9043-1