Infection with Influenza A Virus Leads to Flu Antigen-Induced Cutaneous Anaphylaxis in Mice

It is well established, that viral infections may trigger urticaria or allergic asthma; however, as viral infections induce T helper 1 polarized responses, which lead to the inhibition of T helper 2 cell development, the opposite would be plausible. We wanted to investigate how viral infections may mediate allergic symptoms in a mouse model; therefore, we infected BALB/C mice with influenza A virus intranasally. Histologic analyses of lung sections and bronchoalveolar lavages were performed. In addition, cells from the mediastinal lymph nodes were restimulated in vitro to analyze which types of cytokines were induced by the flu infection. Furthermore, flu-specific antibody titers were determined and local anaphylaxis was measured after rechallenge with flu antigen. We found that airways inflammation consisted predominately of macrophages and lymphocytes, whereas only a few eosinophils were observed. interferon-γ but no interleukin-4 and little interleukin-5 could be detected in the culture supernatants from in vitro restimulated T cells from the draining lymph nodes. The antibody response was characterized by high levels of virus-specific IgG2a, IgG2b, and IgG1 and, surprisingly, low levels of virus-specific IgE antibodies. Interestingly, flu-infected mice developed active and passive cutaneous anaphylaxis after rechallenge with flu-antigen. As the passive cutaneous anaphylaxis reaction persisted over 48 h and was significantly lower after passive transfer of the serum, which was IgE depleted, local anaphylaxis seemed to be mediated predominately by specific IgE antibodies. Taken together, our results demonstrate that mice infected with flu virus develop virus-specific mast cell degranulation in the skin. Our results may also have implications for the pathogenesis of urticaria or other atopic disorders in humans.