TRANSFER OF ALLERGIC AIRWAY RESPONSES WITH SERUM AND LYMPHOCYTES FROMRATS SENSITIZED TO DUST-MITE

House dust mite (HDM) antigen is one of the most common allergens asso ciated with extrinsic asthma, In a model of allergic lung disease, Bro wn Norway (BN) rats sensitized to HDM with alum and Bordetella pertuss is adjuvants produce high levels of IgE antibody and experience bronch oconstriction, increased airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) to acetylcho line (ACh), and pulmonary inflammation after antigen challenge. The pu rpose of this study was to determine whether these asthmatic symptoms could be transferred from sensitized animals to naive recipients via h umoral or cellular factors. Syngeneic recipient rats were injected (in traperitoneally with 4 x 10(7) cells (precultured overnight with eithe r HDM or bovine serum albumin [BSA]) from lymph nodes of sensitized or control rats, respectively. Other groups received a tail-vein injecti on of serum from either HDM-sensitized or control rats. Antigen challe nge in rats injected with sensitized cells caused increases in pulmona ry inflammation and in AHR, but no changes in immediate bronchoconstri ction as compared with control recipients. Antigen challenge in serum recipients resulted in immediate bronchoconstriction but had no effect on AHR or on pulmonary inflammation. These data show that immune-medi ated lung inflammation and AHR are promoted by antigen-specific lympho cytes, whereas immediate allergic responses are caused by serum factor s.