Korean J Asthma Allergy Clin Immunol.  2010 Dec;30(4):307-313.

Effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccination according to Time Point of Administration on Asthma in a Murine Model

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 (1x106 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.

MeSH Terms

Animals
Asthma
Bacillus
Bronchoalveolar Lavage
Cell Count
Eosinophils
Immunoglobulin E
Immunoglobulins
Inflammation
Lung
Mice
Mycobacterium bovis
Ovalbumin
Vaccination
Immunoglobulin E
Immunoglobulins
Ovalbumin