Abstract: Background: Asthma is a chronic allergic disease characterized by the infiltration of eosinophils into the airway and lung. Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) has been reported to be beneficial to inhibit allergic inflammation in an animal asthma model. Objective: The aims of the study were to investigate the efficacy of BCG according to the time point of administration on asthma in a murine model. Method: BALB/c mice were treated with BCG (1×106 CFUs) before sensitization (?5 days) or after sensitization (+12 days) in asthma-induced BALB/c mice by ovalbumin (OVA) sensitization. Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR), influx of inflammatory cells in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, histopathological changes in the lung and systemic immune responses were assessed. Result: The administration of BCG before and after sensitization suppressed asthmatic responses, including BHR, OVA-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) production, percentage of eosinophils in BALF and pulmonary eosinophilic inflammation in the murine model compared to the control group. However, total IgE, total cell count and OVA-IgG1 were significantly suppressed by BCG before sensitization only. Conclusion: BCG vaccinations, regardless of administration time point, suppressed asthmatic responses in mice. The mechanism of effect of BCG before sensitization is thought to be balance Th1/Th2 immune responses, but, that of BCG after sensitization may be different from BCG before sensitization. (Korean J Asthma Allergy Clin Immunol 2010;30:307-313)
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-12-01
Language: en
Type: article
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