Immune Response of HLA-DQ Transgenic Mice to House Dust Mite Allergen p2: Identification of HLA-DQ Restricted Minimal Epitopes and Critical Residues

HLA-DQ6 Transgenic Mice Resistance to Experimental Autoimmune Myasthenia Gravis is Linked to Reduced Acetylcholine Receptor-specific IFN-γ, IL-2 and IL-10 Production

“…Similarly, the reduced levels of anti-AChR antibodies described previously for DQ6 mice [25] do not result from a reduction in B cell levels. This is consistent with the fact that DQ6 mice have been shown to be able to develop an intact proliferative response to dust mite allergen peptides [33]. Therefore, the reduced response of DQ6 mice to AChR does not result from a defect of the immune system.…”

“…Consequently, the relative resistance of DQ6 mice, compared to DQ8 mice, appears to be associated with a general decrease in the lymphocyte response to AChR and its epitopes and not to the existence of different immunodominant epitopes. This finding is different from the response to allergen p2 of the house dust mite by DQ6 and DQ8 mice, which respond to different sets of peptides [33].…”

Identification of antigenic epitopes on human allergens: studies with HLA transgenic mice.

“…Because these mice were of the H2 b haplotype and lacked the functional H2-E molecule, no mouse class II molecules were expressed on the cell surface. HLA tg mice express intact HLA molecules on cells of the lymphoid system and respond to several protein, peptide, and parasitic antigens Geluk et al 1998;Krco et al 2000;Kudva et al 2001;Pimtanothai et al 2000;Raju et al 2001 . In bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), 80.66-92.92% of Mac1α + cells and 79.68-90.33% of B220 + cells coexpressed DQ antigen ).…”

“…We tested the ability of HLA-DQ tg mice to respond to house dust mite (Krco et al 2000;Neeno et al 1996), ragweed (Chapoval et al 1998), and cockroach (Papouchado et al 2000) allergens. The (Romagnani 2000).…”

“…Therefore, there is at least one HLA-DQ6-restricted determinant within the region 1-30 of antigen 5, and there are at least two HLA-DQ8-restricted determinants within residue 1-40. We are performing truncation analysis to precisely localize critical residues (Krco et al 2000). Control H-2Aβ 0 mice failed to show a proliferative response to any of the peptides.…”