Fig 6. Intramuscular immunization with VANBT induces both Th1 and Th2 cytokines upon virus challenge.
Female cotton rats were mock-immunized i.m. on day 0 and at 3 weeks, infected with VANBT on day 0, or immunized i.m. on day 0 and at 3 weeks with UV-VANBT, or VANBT, using 106 TCID50/100 μl of virus. At 7 weeks, all animals were challenged i.n. with 106 TCID50 of VANBT and sacrificed at 10 h or 48 h p.i. Relative mRNA expression profiles of IFN-β (A), Mx-2 (B), IP-10 (C), IFN-γ (D), IL-6 (E), IL-4 (F), IL-5 (G), and IL-13 (H) at either 10 or 48 h p.i. in the lung tissues were measured by qRT-PCR. Results were calculated as fold-induction over uninfected (naïve) animals and expressed as geometric means ± SE. Results are representative of two independent experiments, n = 5. * p<0.05 for each group compared with mock-immunized group, #p<0.05 when VANBT/i.m. compared to VANBT/i.n. and ⦁p<0.05 when VANBT/i.m. compared with UV-VANBT/i.m.