Figure 2.

Hypersensitivity study in mice. B6 mice were sensitized by exposure to female Ae. albopictus mosquitoes three times during a 14-day period. On day 43, mice were injected i.d. on footpad with 10 µg SGE protein, 10⁸ PFU of EILV/CHIKV or PBS (mock). 24 h after challenge, mouse tissues were harvested to assess allergy responses. (A) Scheme of sensitization study. (B) Splenocytes were stimulated with 20 μg/ml SGE for 48 h and culture supernatants were collected to measure cytokine production by Bioplex. n = 5. * P< 0.05 compared to mock group. (C) H &E staining of footpad inflammation. Mock: no inflammation. EILV/CHIKV: minor inflammation in the subcutaneous tissue with mononuclear cells, eosinophils and few neutrophils. SGE: right panel shown enlarged image of the black rectangular box marked in the left panel. Severe inflammation in the subcutaneous tissue with large amounts of eosinophils (red arrows) and neutrophils (blue arrows) as well as mononuclear cells.