Studies on the aggravation mechanism of allergy by the environmental pollutants with emphasis on the cell-to-cell interaction and the intracellular signal network

我们研究了环境污染物(苯并[a]芘或邻苯二甲酸酯)对多种免疫细胞激活、细胞间相互作用和细胞内信号网络的影响，以阐明环境污染物加重变态反应的机制。这些环境污染物激活了脾细胞中的T细胞和抗原提呈细胞(巨噬细胞、树突状细胞、B细胞)，但没有观察到T细胞的直接激活，这表明抗原提呈细胞和T细胞之间的相互作用，特别是通过CD3/CD28，是导致这种激活的原因。本研究表明，环境污染物可诱导T细胞活化，包括Th2细胞因子的增加，特别是通过T细胞表面CD3/CD28促进抗原提呈细胞信号及其细胞内信号网络，这可能是环境污染物致变态反应加重的机制之一。

We investigated the effects of environmental pollutants (benzo[a]pyrene or phthalate esters) on the activation of various immune cells, the cell-to-cell interaction, and the intracellular signal network to elucidate the aggravation mechanism of allergy by the environmental pollutants. These environmental pollutants activated T-cells and antigen-presenting cells (macrophages, dendritic cells, B cells) in splenocytes, however the direct activation was not observed for T-cells, which suggested that the interaction between antigen-presenting cells and T-cells, especially via CD3/CD28, was responsible for the activation. This study indicates that the environmental pollutants can induce T-cell activation including increase of Th2 cytokine production particularly mediated by promotion of antigen-presenting cell signal through CD3/CD28 on the T cells and by their intracellular signal network, which can be responsible for the aggravation mechanism of allergy by the environmental pollutants.