The total cell numbers in BAL fluid of OVA sensitized and challenged mice increased

Androgen Receptor antagonist over 10-fold to 650 000 compared with those in OVA sensitized but not challenged mice (57 000) indicating severe pulmonary inflammation in these animals. Interestingly, mice which received either Qβ-Eot or Qβ-IL-5 showed reduced inflammation in the airways ( Fig. 3A). Specifically, the total number of infiltrating cells in Qβ-Eot immunized mice reached 250 000 and Qβ-IL-5 immunized mice reached 200 000. A further reduction in infiltrating cell number (140 000) was achieved by the combined vaccination of both vaccines. Since eosinophils are the main effector cells during airway inflammation, we quantified their numbers in BAL fluid by differential cell staining (Fig. NU7441 concentration 3B). OVA sensitized and challenged mice vaccinated with Qβ-IL-5 had 97% (p = 0.012) fewer eosinophils

relative, while Qβ-Eot vaccinated mice had an 80% reduction in eosinophils numbers (p = 0.031) relative to animals that were OVA sensitized and challenged, but not vaccinated. This result demonstrates that active immunization against either IL-5 or eotaxin efficiently reduces eosinophilic airway inflammation in a mouse model of allergic airway inflammation. Mice vaccinated with both vaccines showed a 99% reduction in infiltrating eosinophils relative to the positive control (p = 0.005). Nonetheless, a small population of eosinophils remained in the BAL. In contrast no change

in the numbers of macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes could be observed in these vaccinated mice (data GPX6 not shown). While the use of two vaccines in combination was numerically better than either eotaxin Qβ or IL-5-Qβ vaccine alone, the result did not achieve statistical significance when analyzed by 4-way ANOVA. In a separate experiment we compared the total number of cells and eosinophils in BAL obtained from mice immunized with Qβ or IL-5 Qβ (Fig. 3C and D). For Qβ immunized mice, the total number of cells and eosinophils in the BALF were in a comparable range to those for the unvaccinated animals in the experiment described above (see Fig. 3A and B). For the group immunized with Qβ-IL-5 there was a 72% reduction in the number of total cells in the BALF (p = 0.038) and a 97% reduction in the number of eosinophils (p = 0.008). To determine if the reduction in inflammatory cells and eosinophils in the BAL following immunization reflected cellular changes in the lung, H&E (data not shown) and Lendrum staining of lung sections were also performed (Fig. 4). Histological analysis indicated that mice which were sensitized but not challenged with OVA had no (or only minimal) histopathological lesions (Fig. 4A). In contrast, OVA sensitized and challenged mice developed histopathological lesions typical of those described for this model of allergic airway inflammation.