FIG. 5.
Effects of IL-10 neutralization or IL-12 administration on host susceptibility to M. tuberculosis infection for normal and neutropenic mice. Mice were injected i.v. with 105 CFU of M. tuberculosis and treated during the first week of infection with MAb RB6-8C5 (right panel) or PBS (left panel) as described for Fig. 2. Recombinant IL-12 was administrated i.p. at 5 h and 2 days after infection, and neutralization of IL-10 was done by i.p. injection, at 5 h after infection, of 2 mg of MAb JES5-2A5 (αIL-10); as a control for these treatments, mice were injected i.p. with PBS. Groups of mice were sacrificed at 14 days of infection, and numbers of viable bacteria were assessed. The results represent the geometric means and standard deviations of the CFU of four animals. Statistical differences between mice treated i.p. with PBS and mice treated i.p. with IL-12 or with MAb JES5-2A5: ∗, P < 0.05; ∗∗, P < 0.01. Results are from one representative experiment of two independent experiments.