FIG 2.

Dosing down of antigen leads to enhanced inflammation in lung tissue post-RSV A2 challenge. BALB/c mice (7 weeks old; n, 5 per group) were immunized i.m. at day 0 and day 21 with either buffer alone, different doses of post-F antigen with GLA-SE (2.5 μg GLA in 2% SE) as an adjuvant, or FI-RSV. A control group for natural infection was immunized i.n. with live RSV (10⁶ PFU) at day 0. Naïve animals were left untreated. At day 34, animals were challenged i.n. with 10⁶ PFU of wild-type (wt) RSV A2, and 4 days later, animals were sacrificed. Lungs were harvested, homogenized, clarified, pooled in each group, and analyzed by multiplex assays to assess the respective concentrations of eotaxin (A), IL-5 (B), IL-13 (C), TNF-α (D), IL-6 (E), IP-10 (F), MCP-1 (G), IL-17 (H), KC (I), and MIP-2 (J). The means of replicate measurements are shown.