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Early immune response in susceptible and resistant mice strains with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection determines the type of T‐helper cell response
Author(s) -
Moser Claus,
Hougen Hans Petter,
Song Zhijun,
Rygaard JøRgen,
Kharazmi Arsalan,
HøIby Niels
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
apmis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.909
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1600-0463
pISSN - 0903-4641
DOI - 10.1111/j.1699-0463.1999.tb01514.x
Subject(s) - immune system , cystic fibrosis , pseudomonas aeruginosa , inflammation , immunology , lung , antibody , medicine , antibody response , biology , bacteria , genetics
Most cystic fibrosis (CF) patients become chronically infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lungs. The infection is characterized by a pronounced antibody response and a persistant inflammation dominated by polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Moreover a high antibody response correlates with a poor prognosis. We speculated that a change from this Th2‐like response to a Th1‐like response might decrease the lung inflammation and thus improve the prognosis in CF patients. To investigate this, we infected C3H/HeN and BALB/c mice intratracheally with P. aeruginosa. In addition, we studied the early immune response leading to different Th responses. Mortality was lower in the C3H/HeN mice (p<0.005), they cleared the bacteria faster (day 3 p<0.01, day 7 p<0.02), had a milder lung inflammation (day 7 p<0.01, day 14 p<0.0005) and had a Th1‐like IgG subclass switch. At day 3, the C3H/HeN mice produced less NO and TNF‐α, (p<0.01 and p<0.03) and had the lowest IL‐10/IL12 ratio (p<0.05). At day 7, the C3H/HeN mice had the highest IFN‐γ (p<0.02), and the lowest IL‐4 (p<0.02) production in the lungs. In conclusion, these results show that the Th1‐reacting C3H/ HeN mice with chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection have a better disease outcome compared to the Th2‐reacting BALB/c mice, indicating that a Th1 response might be beneficial in CF patients with chronic P. aeruginosa lung infection.