Physiol. Res. 49: 665-672, 2000

Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses in Gluten-Treated Suckling or Hand-Fed Rats

H. KOZÁKOVÁ, R. ŠTĚPÁNKOVÁ, L. TUČKOVÁ, M. ŠINKORA, L. JELÍNKOVÁ, H. TLASKALOVÁ-HOGENOVÁ

Department of Immunology and Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Nový Hrádek, Czech Republic

Received September 16, 1999
Accepted March 27, 2000


Summary
We analyzed the immune response to gliadin in suckling rats and rats hand-fed with an artificial milk formula, an animal model of gluten enteropathy. Animals of both groups were intragastrically given either gliadin or albumin (control animals) or gliadin from birth till day 55. When compared to the controls, spleen lymphocytes from both groups of gliadin-treated rats cultivated in vitro exhibited a significant increase of spontaneous 3H-thymidine incorporation. Moreover, the proliferation of spleen and mesenteric lymph node (MLN) lymhocytes from both groups of gliadin-treated suckling and hand-fed rats was specifically increased by the in vitro gliadin challenge. Spleen B cells from gliadin-treated rats spontaneously produced higher amounts of gliadin-specific antibodies than those from the controls, however, in vitro stimulation by gliadin caused no further increase in antibody production. Apoptotic DNA fragmentation in MLN cells was higher in gliadin-treated rats than in albumin-treated ones, independently of the milk diet during the suckling period.


Key words
Model of coeliac disease · Rats · Proliferation · Antigliadin antibodies · Apoptosis

Reprint requests
H. Kozáková, Department of Immunology and Gnotobiology, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, CZ-549 22 Nový Hrádek, Czech Republic. kozakova@biomed.cas.cz


© 2000 by the Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences