TABLE 3.
Comparison of the levels of selected pulmonary cytokine mRNAs in mice infected with wt RSV or RSV/IL-4a
| Cytokine | Virusb | % Expression (mean ± SE)c
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Day 4 | Day 29 (1) | Day 32 (4) | ||
| IFN-γ | wt RSV | 2.63 ± 0.81 | 0 | 4.95 ± 0.28 | 2.99 ± 0.22 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 1.29 ± 0.05 | 0 | 6.49 ± 0.76 | 4.45 ± 0.49 | |
| Mock | 0.92 ± 0.24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| IL-12 p35 | wt RSV | 0.82 ± 0.12 | 1.12 ± 0.12 | 0.45 ± 0.03 | 0.47 ± 0.01 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 0.56 ± 0.04 | 1.16 ± 0.03 | 0.42 ± 0.03 | 0.58 ± 0.08 | |
| Mock | 1.11 ± 0.30 | 1.37 ± 0.05 | 0.55 ± 0.07 | 0.73 ± 0.14 | |
| wt RSV | 0.74 ± 0.12 | 1.12 ± 0.08 | 0.57 ± 0.03 | 0.18 ± 0.08 | |
| IL-12 p40 | RSV/IL-4 | 0.38 ± 0.03 | 1.02 ± 0.06 | 0.41 ± 0.03 | 0.17 ± 0.08 |
| Mock | 0.91 ± 0.29 | 0.91 ± 0.09 | 0.83 ± 0.07 | 0.14 ± 0.06 | |
| IL-18 | wt RSV | 5.93 ± 0.99 | 5.14 ± 0.11 | 5.21 ± 0.18 | 2.75 ± 0.12 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 2.73 ± 0.10 | 3.87 ± 0.27 | 7.40 ± 0.61 | 3.75 ± 0.16 | |
| Mock | 3.80 ± 0.20 | 5.42 ± 0.23 | 6.76 ± 0.13 | 4.65 ± 0.22 | |
| IL-4 | wt RSV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 8.20 ± 0.51 | 8.58 ± 0.72 | 1.46 ± 0.16 | 0.34 ± 0.03 | |
| Mock | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| IL-5 | wt RSV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 0 | 0 | 1.27 ± 0.13 | 0.34 ± 0.04 | |
| Mock | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| IL-13 | wt RSV | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RSV/IL-4 | 0 | 0 | 1.54 ± 0.20 | 0.50 ± 0.04 | |
| Mock | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Groups of mice (five animals per group per day) were infected on day 0 with wt RSV or RSV/IL-4 or were mock infected. Animals were sacrificed on days 1 and 4 postinfection, and the lungs were removed and processed to quantify cytokine mRNAs by a ribonuclease protection assay. The remaining animals (including the mock controls) were challenged on day 28 with wt RSV and sacrificed on days 29 and 32 (1 and 4 days postchallenge, respectively), and the lungs were processed for RNA analysis. The abundance of each mRNA is expressed as the percentage of the L32 housekeeping gene mRNA in the same sample, with the standard error indicated. Values for the RSV/IL-4 group that have a statistically significant (P < 0.05) difference from those for the wt RSV group are shown in bold. Initial experiments on mRNA quantitation used gradient-purified virus preparations, with no difference seen compared to unpurified preparations.
All groups are designated according to the inoculum on day 0.
Zero values mean that the corresponding mRNA was not detected.