FIGURE 3.

Preventive oral probiotic supplementation decreased the allergic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness of re-challenged ovariectomized allergic mice. (A) An oral probiotic (B. longum 5^1A) was administered by gavage daily for 15 days before the first OVA sensitization of mice and continued until 4 h before the ovaries of the mice were removed. (B) AHR in mice supplemented with the probiotic or saline. (C) Differential cell counts in the BAL. Total number of cells infiltrating the airways in the BAL. (D) Concentration of INF-γ, IL-4, IL-5, and IL-10 expression levels in the BAL. (E) Representative periodic acid–Schiff (PAS)-stained lung tissue from mice on either a control or probiotic on day 16. Scale bars, 200 μm. All results are representative of data generated in two different experiments and are expressed as the mean ± SEM (n = 4 control mice, and n = 5 mice given the probiotic supplementation). Statistical significance was determined with Student’s t-test, except in (B), in which a two-way ANOVA test was used. ^∗P < 0.05, ^∗∗P < 0.01, ^∗∗∗P < 0.001, ^∗∗∗∗P < 0.0001.