Figure 7. The suppressive effects of eMOD are heat-stable.

Mice were immunized intraperitoneally with 1 µg of Bet v 1 admixed to 50 µg of eMOD (black bars; eMOD/sens) or heat-treated eMOD (striped bars; hi-eMOD/sens) on days 0, 14 and 28, then intranasally challenged with 100 µg of birch pollen extract (BP) on three consecutive days one week after the last sensitization (days 35–37). Control mice (white bars; sens) were immunized with Bet v 1 admixed to PBS. Serum, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue for histology were collected at day 40. Functional IgE was measured by Bet v 1-mediated β-hexosaminidase release from rat basophil leukemia cells (A). The dashed line indicates the background level of the assay. (B) The numbers of total and differential cells in BALF. Results are representative of two experiments each with five mice per group. Data is expressed as mean ±SEM. **p<0.01; ns = not significant; Mac = macrophages; Eos = eosinophils, Neu = neutrophils; Lym = lymphocytes. (C) Representative haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining of paraformaldehyde-fixed lung tissue sections at 40×magnification. Representative BALF cytospins were stained with H&E and are shown at 100×magnification.