Immunological Interactive Effects between Pollen Grains and Their Cytoplasmic Granules on Brown Norway Rats

Table 2 Protein Concentrations and Cytokine Levels (Mean ± SEM) in BALF

	NC	PP	GG	PG	GP
Protein (mg/mL)	0.66 ± 0.09	1.79 ± 0.19*	1.85 ± 0.27*	2.23 ± 0.18*	2.44 ± 0.30*
Pro-inflammatory cytokines (pg/mL)
IL-2	1.3 ± 0.7	2.8 ± 1.0	2.2 ± 0.6	2.4 ± 0.7	4.4 ± 1.3
IL-6	21 ± 8	98 ± 20*	55 ± 18	50 ± 10	74 ± 21
IL-10	4.4 ± 2.7	17.0 ± 3.8*	18.6 ± 4.9*	17.7 ± 3.3*	18.4 ± 6.3*
IFNγ	6.9 ± 5.7	41.8 ± 11.9*	16.6 ± 6.0	18.2 ± 4.7	24.2 ± 9.4
TNFα	12 ± 8	71 ± 11*	72 ± 11*	69 ± 18*	86 ± 20*
IL-1α	4.8 ± 1.9	8.4 ± 1.8	9.9 ± 1.5	19.9 ± 1.7*†‡	27.7 ± 6.1*†‡
IL-1β	120 ± 20	186 ± 31	257 ± 40*	627 ± 62*†‡	645 ± 114*†‡
Pro-allergy cytokines (pg/mL)
IL-4	11.3 ± 7.3	18.4 ± 7.2	22.5 ± 9.6	17.7 ± 8.7	(28.9)§
IL-5	13 ± 6	142 ± 51	316 ± 110*	131 ± 31*	655 ± 226*
IL-13	14.5 ± 6.0	43 ± 9.6	61.0 ± 21.4*	32.7 ± 6.4	51.3 ± 14.7*
Rantes	6.8 ± 1.8	9.9 ± 2.2	22.4 ± 3.1*†	26.1 ± 2.2*†	31.4 ± 4.8*†
Th2/Th1 ratio¶	5.62 ± 4.84	4.86 ± 0.3	24.06 ± 0.2*†	9.96 ± 0.1‡	30.4 ± 2.2*†

*Significantly different to NC (P < 0.05).
†Significantly different to PP group (P < 0.05).
‡Significantly different to GG group (P < 0.05).
§ In this group, 1 rat only presented IL-4 in BALF.
¶Th2/Th1 ratio = (IL-4 + IL-5 + IL-13)/(IFNγ).
NC, negative control group; PP, rats sensitized and challenged with 0.5 mg of pollen; GG, rats sensitized and challenged with 4.5 × 10⁷ PCG; PG, rats sensitized with 0.5 mg of pollen and challenged with 4.5 × 10⁷ PCG; GP, rats sensitized with 4.5 × 10⁷ PCG and challenged with 0.5 mg of pollen.

ISSN: 1939-4551