Figure 4. Adjuvant effect of αAI pea and bean consumption.

Naïve BALB/c mice were compared with OVA-immunized and challenged mice gavaged with either PBS, or Tendergreen bean, αAI peas, non-transgenic pea seed meal. A. Eosinophil counts in BAL fluid from mice at disease initiation and e. exacerbation. B. Eosinophil counts in Luna-stained lung sections from mice at disease initiation and F. exacerbation. C. Inflammation scores of lung sections from mice at disease initiation and G. exacerbation. D. Mucus scores in PAS-stained lung sections from mice at disease initiation and H. exacerbation. Serum anti-OVA IgG1 and IgE antibody titres for mice at .I. disease initiation or J. disease exacerbation. Groups include naïve mice , PBS alone ×, Tendergreen bean ▪, αAI pea ▴ and nGM pea ▵ gavaged mice. Data are expressed as mean OD_{450 nm} ± SEM; n = 8, duplicate samples. For IgE, dilutions are expressed ×10³. Data are expressed as means ± SEM; n = 8. For eosinophil counts in BAL and lungs, data were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn's multiple comparison test. For histological scoring, data were compared with the Mann Whitney test. *p<0.05 for all groups above the PBS controls. These are representative data from 2 experiments.