BACKGROUND Several methods have been reported to induce asthmatic reactions in mice but few studies have compared their efficiency. We evaluated the efficiency of the protocols frequently used in the literature. METHODS BALB/c mice were sensitized to ovalbumin (OVA) by intraperitoneal injection; 1] Once a week for two weeks using OVA with alum (IPOA-2) or without (IPO-2), and provocation on d...

Immunotherapy by sublingual administration of allergens provides high patient compliance and has emerged as an alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy for the treatment of IgE-associated allergic diseases. However, sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) can cause adverse events. Development of allergen delivery systems enabling more efficient delivery and hence lower allergen load might reduce the a...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional APCs that have a unique capacity to initiate primary immune responses, including tolerogenic responses. We have genetically engineered bone marrow-derived DCs to express the immunosuppressive cytokine IL-10 and tested the ability of these cells to control experimental asthma. A single intratracheal injection of OVA-pulsed IL-10-transduced DCs (OVA-IL-10-DC...

BACKGROUND Korean ginseng is a well-known medicinal herb that has been widely used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases, including asthma. Ginseng can be classified as white ginseng (WG) or red ginseng (RG), according to processing conditions. In this study, the authors compared the efficacies of these two ginseng types in a mouse model of acute asthma. METHODS To produce the acu...

To evaluate the role of CCR2 in allergic asthma, mutant mice deficient in CCR2 (CCR2(-/-)) and intact mice were sensitized with i.p. OVA with alum on days 0 and 7, and challenged by inhalation with nebulization of either OVA or saline. Airway hyperreactivity, measured by the methacholine-provoked increase in enhanced pause, was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in OVA-challenged CCR2(-/-) muta...

Abstract HFE is the most frequently mutated gene in hereditary hemochromatosis, a disease which iron accumulates organs leading to toxicities. Worldwide, two main polymorphisms protein have been observed, namely C282Y and H63D. Even if associated milder accumulations, H63D polymorphism increases risk of cancer development aggressiveness. As observed pancreatic patients, great percentage those t...

Methods The experimental design was approved by the Ethics Committee of Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP)No.092/2012. Groups of female BALB/c mice (8 weeks old; 24.53±0.31g) were divided randomly in to five experimental groups as follows: Control group (CG) remained to air room; PBS group received aluminum hydroxide in phosphate buffered saline (PBS); OVA group (OVA) received ovalbumin an...

One of several routes of achieving immunologic tolerance is through functional inactivation of Ag-specific T cells. Oral administration of Ag can allow survival of the Ag-specific T cells that are functionally anergic. The aim of this study was to investigate whether functional inactivation of Ag-specific T cells is directed through an activation process and to further define the differentiativ...

BACKGROUND The functional role of nitric oxide (NO) and various nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms in asthma remains unclear. OBJECTIVE This study investigated the effects of ozone and ovalbumin (OVA) exposure on NOS isoforms. METHODS The expression of inducible NOS (iNOS), neuronal NOS (nNOS), and endothelial NOS (eNOS) in lung tissue was measured. Enhanced pause (Penh) was measured as a...

BACKGROUND We have already reported that antigen-specific IgG1 antibody production in WBB6F1-W/Wv (W/Wv) mice after oral administration of ovalbumin (OVA) was extremely high. Active systemic anaphylaxis (ASA) was induced in these mice after intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of OVA, and Th2-dominant helper T-cell activation occurred. In this study, we examined the effect of CpG oligodeoxynuc...