The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1995-1996

In Vitro Assay for Hapten-Specific Priming of Human T Lymphocytes

J. Wayne Streilein, MD
Schepens Eye Research Institute, Boston, Massachusetts

An overwhelming body of data supports the contention that Langerhans cells (LC) are the predominant antigen-presenting cells in skin. Cultured Langerhans cells are believed to display properties typical of Langerhans cells that have migrated from the skin, carrying immunogenic signals to draining lymph node where the initial stages of T cell activation and sensitization begin. The investigators have demonstrated that murine Langerhans cells cultured for three days and then hapten-derivatized display the capacity to activate unprimed hapten-specific cells. Human LC cultured in vitro for three days display functional properties similar to cultured murine cells. The investigators will study the antigen-specific cellular events associated with induction and expression of human contact hypersensitivity using skin or blood as a cellular source to determine whether human epidermal and blood cells can be manipulated in vitro in order to activate naive T cells that mediate contact hypersensitivity.