Jr. Ostberg et al., Regulatory potential of fever-range whole body hyperthermia on Langerhans cells and lymphocytes in an antigen-dependent cellular immune response, J IMMUNOL, 167(5), 2001, pp. 2666-2670
The febrile response is one of the most common features of infection and in
flammation. However, temperature is rarely a variable in experimental immun
ological investigations. To determine whether the thermal microenvironment
has any immunoregulatory potential in an Ag-dependent response, we applied
a mild fever-range whole body hyperthermia (FR-WBH) protocol to BALB/c mice
experiencing the contact hypersensitivity (CHS) reaction. We observed that
the timing of this FR-WBH treatment relative to the different phases of th
e CHS response was crucial to the outcome. FR-WBH treatment before sensitiz
ation with a 0.5% FITC solution resulted in a depressed CHS response. This
appears to be due to direct effects of FR-WBH on epidermal Langerhans cell
trafficking to the draining lymph nodes. In contrast, application of FR-WBH
directly after application of the elicitation dose of FITC solution result
ed in an enhanced reaction. This result correlates with increased homing of
lymphocytes to the site of elicitation. Overall, these data have important
implications regarding the role of thermal changes experienced during infe
ction and the clinical use of FR-WBH relative to immunotherapeutic strategi
es.