CD4+ T cells anergized by high dose feeding establish oral tolerance to antibody responses when transferred in SCID and nude mice.

The cellular mechanism for oral tolerance in specific Ab response was investigated by cell-transfer experiments, using severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and BALB/c nu/nu mice. High dose feeding with bovine alpha s1-casein, a major allergen in milk, to BALB/c mice induced Ag-specific oral tolerance to the specific Ab response. This state of oral tolerance was successfully transferred to SCID mice with splenocytes from orally tolerant BALB/c mice. In SCID mice that were transferred with tolerant T cells and normal B cells before being immunized with alpha s1-casein, oral tolerance to the Ab responses was generated. In addition, only the T cells established the tolerant state in nude mice. A decreased proliferative response of the splenic T cells from BALB/c mice against alpha s1-casein was also shown, indicating that the decreased Ab responses were attributed to the unresponsiveness of the splenic T cells. Next, the tolerant splenic T cells were further separated into CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells, remixed with normal cells, and then transferred to nude mice, which revealed that the tolerant state in the nude mice was principally generated by the CD4+ T cells. When tolerant CD4+ T cells were cotransferred with normal CD4+ T cells to nude mice, there was no significant reduction in the specific Ab responses. These results demonstrate that splenic CD4+ T cells anergized by high dose feeding established oral tolerance to the Ab responses when transferred to SCID and nude mice.