Fig. 5.

Therapeutic effects of L. casei/pPG612.1-BLF in the murine VVC model. a 3 days before infection, each mouse received estradiol valerate and this was repeated every 7 days during the experiment. Four days later, the mice were infected with 20 μL of a C. albicans suspension (10⁸ CFU/mL) delivered into the vagina. Two days after infection, mice underwent vaginal inoculation with 20 μL of L. casei/pPG612.1-BLF (OD₆₀₀ = 0.6–0.7) for five consecutive days, and were sacrificed with on Day 7. Vaginal lavage was collected on Day 2, Day4 and Day7, and vagina and lumbar lymph nodes were excised for cytological and histological tests. b The concentrations of IL-17 in all groups were persistently increased after infection during the treatment, but it was the lowest in clotrimazole group and highest in PBS group. After the completion of treatment, the concentration of IL-17 was lower in L.casei/pPG612.1-BLF group (29.08 ± 1.33 pg/mL) than that in L.casei/pPG612.1 group (36.42 ± 2.80 pg/mL) and L.casei group (34.71 ± 2.18 pg/mL). c As for IL-23, it was the highest in PBS group (12.15 ± 1.89 pg/mL), while lowest in 20 mg/mL clotrimazole group (8.60 ± 1.02 pg/mL) after the treatment. Importantly, it was significantly lower (P = 0.026) in the L.casei/pPG612.1-BLF group (9.65 ± 1.74 pg/mL) than the L.casei/pPG612.1 (10.46 ± 0.73 pg/mL) and L.casei (10.95 ± 1.02 pg/mL) groups