Mice with double knockout of H2-Eb1 and H2-Ab1 exhibit reduced susceptibility to allergic rhinitis

PLoS One. 2018 Oct 29;13(10):e0206122. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206122. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

We herein examined the importance of H2-Eb1 and H2-Ab1 in the susceptibility of mice to allergic rhinitis (AR) by developing double-gene (H2-Eb1+H2-Ab1) knockout mice. The mice were randomly grouped into different sensitization and excitation treatments, then their behavioral scores; nasal mucosa HE staining; thymus tissue toluidine blue staining; levels of ovalbumin (OVA)-specific IgE, IL-2 and IL-13 in the serum; and expression of IL-2 and IL-13 in the nasal mucosa were observed. H2-Ab1 and H2-Eb1 were both successfully knocked out in the study group (KO-OVA). Compared with the control group (WT-OVA), the nasal mucosal tissue in the KO-OVA mice showed fewer histological changes, reduced numbers of eosinophilic granulocytes, fewer mast cells in the thymus tissue, reduced concentrations of OVA-specific IgE and IL-13 in the serum, and reduced expression of IL-13 in the nasal mucosa. The behavior of the mice was also improved. In addition, the IL-2 concentration in the serum and IL-2 expression in the nasal mucosa were increased. There were two important findings of this study: (1) The H2-Ab1 and H2-Eb1 double knockout model of allergic rhinitis was successfully constructed, and the Th1/Th2 cell factors were in imbalance in these mice compared to WT mice; (2) the AR susceptibility of the dual knockout mice was reduced, confirming that H2-Ab1 and H2-Eb1 contribute to allergic rhinitis, at least in mice.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Eosinophils / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / genetics*
  • Immunoglobulin E / metabolism
  • Interleukin-13 / metabolism
  • Interleukin-2 / metabolism
  • Mast Cells / metabolism*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Nasal Mucosa / immunology
  • Ovalbumin / adverse effects*
  • Ovalbumin / immunology
  • Random Allocation
  • Rhinitis, Allergic / chemically induced
  • Rhinitis, Allergic / genetics*
  • Rhinitis, Allergic / immunology*

Substances

  • Histocompatibility Antigens Class II
  • Interleukin-13
  • Interleukin-2
  • Immunoglobulin E
  • Ovalbumin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81160125). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.