We investigated the effect of oral administration of type I interferon (IFN) on antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) in rats that was induced by immunization with methylated bovine serum albumin (mBSA) followed by intraarticular injection of the antigen. When IFN was orally given before immunization, the severity of AIA was significantly suppressed. Oral IFN also downregulated both delayed type hypersensitivity and in vitro proliferative responses to mBSA. The serum from IFN-fed rats decreased joint inflammation as well as proliferation to mBSA. In contrast, in rats fed IFN after the onset of AIA, neither joint swelling nor the proliferation of T cells to mBSA was affected. Feeding IFN before, but not after immunization with mBSA was effective in suppressing the production of IL-2 by lymph node cells. These data suggest that IFN may be active by the oral route and have a preventive effect on antigen-driven inflammatory diseases that appears to be due the suppression of IL-2 production resulting in the downregulatin of the T cell activation.
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