BALB/c mice display more enhanced BCG vaccine induced Th1 and Th17 response than C57BL/6 mice but have equivalent protection

作者：Garcia Pelayo M Carmen; Bachy Veronique S; Kaveh Daryan A; Hogarth Philip J^*

来源：Tuberculosis, 2015, 95(1): 48-53.

DOI：10.1016/j.tube.2014.10.012

• Tuberculosis
• BCG
• Vaccine
• Th1
• Th17

It is generally assumed that the inbred mouse strains BALB/c (H-2(d)) and C57BL/6 ( H-2(b)) respond to mycobacterial infection with distinct polarisation of T helper responses, with C57BL/6 predisposed to Th1 and BALB/c to Th2. We investigated this in a BCG-immunisation, Mycobacterium bovis challenge model. Following immunisation, lung and spleen cell cytokine responses to in vitro re-stimulation with a cocktail of seven secreted, immunogenic, recombinant mycobacterial proteins were determined. In both lung and spleen, BALB/c cells produced at least 2-fold more IFN-gamma, and up to 7-fold more IL-2 and IL-17 than C57BL/6 cells, whereas IL-10 production was reciprocally increased in C57BL/6 mice. These data suggest that, contrary to reports in the literature, specific mycobacterial antigens are able to induce strong Th1 and Th17 responses in BALB/c mice following BCG vaccination, whilst in C57BL/6 mice, the Th1 response is partly counterbalanced by IL-10. After subsequent M. bovis low dose challenge, protection, as measured in the lungs and dissemination to the spleen, was equivalent in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice, indicating that BCG-induced immunity was equivalent in both strains. Thus, the differential immune responses do not appear to have a role in protection, but further, as yet unidentified, specific immune responses play a significant role.

• 出版日期2015-1