Appearance of delayed-type hypersensitivity effector cells in murine gut mucosa

Feeding of a protein antigen, human gamma globulin (HGG), to BALB/c mice prior to parenteral immunization resulted in the abrogation of a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) response to challenge with that antigen. Unlike parenterally immunized mice, HGG-fed mice were unable to transfer DTH to naive syngeneic recipients using peripheral lymph node lymphocytes. Co-transfer experiments ruled out the possibility of a suppressor cell in the orally immunized mice operating on DTH effector cells. Intra-epithelial lymphocytes (IELs) from mice immunized either orally or parenterally were able to transfer a DTH reaction to unimmunized recipients, while mesenteric lymph node lymphocytes from orally, but not parenterally, immunized donors were capable of transferring DTH. The implications of these results for investigations of gastrointestinal disorders with a suspected immunological aetiology are discussed.