Transient systemic inflammation does not alter the induction of tolerance to gastric autoantigens by migratory dendritic cells

Abstract

It has been proposed that activation of dendritic cells (DCs) presenting self-antigens during inflammation may lead to activation of autoreactive T cells and the development of autoimmunity. To test this hypothesis, we examined the presentation of the autoantigen recognized in autoimmune gastritis, gastric H+/K+ ATPase, which is naturally expressed in the stomach and is constitutively presented in the stomach-draining lymph nodes. Systemic administration to mice of the TLR9 agonist CpG DNA, agonist anti- CD40 Ab, or TLR4 agonist LPS all failed to abrogate the process of peripheral clonal deletion of H+/K+ ATPase-specific CD4 T cells or promote the development of autoimmune gastritis. We demo..