Table I.

Blockade of experimental PF by the caspase inhibitors^*

IgG injected	Treatment	# of mice	Disease Score (Mean ± SD)
PF1	Vehicle	8	2.5 ± 0.3
	Ac-DEVD-cmk	6	0
	Boc-D-fmk	3	0
PF2	Vehicle	6	2.3 ± 0.3
	Ac-DEVD-cmk	3	0
	Boc-D-fmk	3	0

^*Neonatal mice were preinjected (s.c.) with the caspase inhibitor or control vehicle. One and a half hour later, mice were injected (s.c.) with the pathogenic IgG prepared from two PF patients (PF1 and PF2) along with the inhibitor or vehicl. The total doses for Ac-DEVD-cmk were 3.4 or 6.8 µg/g b.w. and for Boc-D-fmk was 6.8 µg/g b.w. Injected animals were examined clinically 20 h after IgG injection, and clinical disease was scored. There is a significant difference in clinical disease scores between mice treated with vehicle and mice treated with Ac-DEVD-cmk or Boc-D-fmk (p < 0.0001, Student’s t test).