Pulmonary immune responses to Propionibacterium acnes in C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice.

ABSTRACT: Propionibacterium acnes (PA) is a gram-positive anaerobic bacterium implicated as a putative etiologic agent of sarcoidosis. To characterize the pulmonary immune response to PA, C57BL/6 and BALB/c mice were intraperitoneally sensitized and intratracheally challenged with heat-killed bacteria. C57BL/6 mice challenged with PA developed a cellular immune response characterized by elevations in Th1 cytokines/chemokines, increased numbers of lymphocytes and macrophages in lung lavage fluid, and peribronchovascular granulomatous inflammation composed of T- and B-lymphocytes and epithelioid histiocytes. T-lymphocytes in the lung lavage fluid showed a marked CD4+ cell predominance. In contrast, C57BL/6 mice challenged with Staphylococcus epidermidis (SE), another gram-positive commensal of human s

SUBMITTER: McCaskill JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2643288 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature