Abstract
Allergic asthma is a complex immunologically mediated disease associated with increased oxidative stress and altered antioxidant defenses. It was hypothesized that α-tocopherol (α-T) decreases oxidative stress and therefore its absence may influence allergic inflammatory process, a pathobiology known to be accompanied by oxidative stress. Therefore, selected parameters of allergic asthma sensitization and inflammation were evaluated following ovalbumin sensitization and re-challenge of α-T transfer protein (TTP) knock-out mice (TTP-/-) that have greatly reduced lung α-T levels (e.g.<5%) compared to their litter mate controls (TTP+/+). Results showed that severe α-T deficiency result in a blunted lung expression of IL-5 mRNA and IL-5 protein and plasma IgE levels compared with TTP+/+ mice following immune sensitization and rechallenge, although lung lavage eosinophil levels were comparable in both genomic strains. It is concluded that the initial stimulation of immune responses by the TTP-/- mice were generally blunted compared to the TTP+/+ mice, thus diminishing some aspects of subsequent allergic inflammatory processes.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 387-396 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Free Radical Research |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- Allergic inflammation
- Asthma
- Cytokines
- Eosinophils
- IgE
- Vitamin E
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biochemistry