Table 2.

The effect of blocking cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) activity on the efficacy of the fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) vaccine against murine S. japonicum infection.

Treatment group	Worm burden	Worm-reduction rate (%)	Average number of eggs/1 g liver tissue (× 103)	Liver egg-reduction rate (%)
Infected-control	27.95 ± 2.82	Not applicable	23.42 ± 7.91	Not applicable
Anti-CTLA-4 mAb	21.87 ± 3.53	21.75*#	19.0 ± 5.36	18.89*#
FABP	20.52 ± 4.62	26.58*#	16.10 ± 6.58	31.24*#
Combination	12.69 ± 1.46	54.61*	9.54 ± 5.67	59.25*

The worm burden was evaluated via the portal-vein infusion method, and the worm-reduction rate was calculated. Livers were removed from the mice in the infected groups after sacrifice, and digested with 5% potassium hydroxide. The number of eggs in an 1-ml aliquot of each digested sample was then counted, and the liver egg-reduction rate were calculated. Data are presented as the mean ± S.D from three independent combined experiments (n = 8/group).

^*P < 0.05 compared to the infected-control group.

^#P < 0.05 compared to the combination group.

Anti-CTLA-4 mAb, anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody.