Medical College of Wisconsin
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Immune responses to Aspergillus antigen in IL-4-/-mice and the effect of eosinophil ablation. Allergy 1999 May;54(5):420-7

Date

06/25/1999

Pubmed ID

10380772

DOI

10.1034/j.1398-9995.1999.00944.x

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0008379736 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   25 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Exposure to Aspergillus fumigatus allergens results in enhanced total serum IgE and peripheral blood eosinophils in mice. The associated pulmonary inflammation and immunologic responses are comparable to those detected in human allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. Allergen-induced cytokines are thought to regulate the inflammatory and immune responses in these animals.

METHODS: In the present study, we exposed C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice to A. fumigatus antigen. Both wild-type and IL-4 knockout phenotypes of animals of both strains were used. Some animals were also treated with anti-IL-5 or anti-IFN-gamma. Total serum IgE, Aspergillus species IgG subclass, peripheral blood eosinophils, and lung histology were studied.

RESULTS: The results demonstrate similar lung inflammation in all wild-type and IL-4-/- animals exposed to A. fumigatus antigen. Similarly, in spite of the diverse immune response produced by the anticytokine treatment, no major differences were detected among any of the animal groups studied.

CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that A. fumigatus exposure in an immunologically unaltered host is predominantly of a Th2 type, and that depletion of the Th2 cytokine leads to a similar lung inflammation but with a characteristic Th1 response, suggesting that the pathogenesis of allergic aspergillosis is the result of multiple induction pathways.

Author List

Kurup VP, Choi HY, Murali PS, Xia JQ, Coffman RL, Fink JN



MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Antigens, Fungal
Aspergillosis, Allergic Bronchopulmonary
Aspergillus fumigatus
Eosinophils
Immunoglobulin E
Immunoglobulin G
Interleukin-4
Lung
Mice
Mice, Inbred BALB C
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Knockout