| dc.description.abstract | In food allergy, the immune system mistakenly identifies specific food proteins as harmful,
initiating an immune response. A skewed Th2 profile characterizes these immune responses. Th2
cells are a major player in the cytokine secretion of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13. These cytokines increase
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the differentiation of naïve T cells to Th2 cells and stimulate B cells to produce IgE towards the
allergens. TH2A cells are an allergen-specific Th2 subset that has increased cytokine secretion
and are thought to be only present in atopic individuals. In addition, Tfh13, a Tfh cell subset, has
increased IL-13 secretion and is believed to be responsible for producing high-affinity
anaphylactic IgE against allergens. For these cells, a flow cytometric panel was designed to
identify these cells in PBMCs. An essential aspect of the immune system is the chemotaxis of
immune cells through the body. We developed a panel for a flow cytometric analysis of T cells
homing toward skin, lung, and gut tissue. The designed panels were tested on healthy donor
PBMCs. The activation of the PBMCs in the homing panel tests showed that more prolonged
stimulation (as well as stimulation with a higher concentration of stimuli) showed increased
homing phenotypes in lung and gut homing tissues. In addition, the BAT was correlated to its
ability to correctly predict the outcome of an oral food challenge (OFC). This study showed that
BAT is better at predicting a positive outcome of the OFC for patients with more severe symptoms
(82%). More false results were given with less severe or tolerant clinical outcomes (9% false
positive and 9% false negative). | |
