Early pulmonary cytokine and chemokine responses in mice immunized with three different vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis determined by PCR array

In this study, the early pulmonary cytokine and chemokine responses in mice immunized with either BCG vaccine, a ΔsecA2 mutant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or a DNA vaccine expressing an ESAT6-antigen 85B fusion protein and then aerogenically challenged with a low dose of M. tuberculosis were evaluated by PCR array. The cellular immune responses at day 10 postchallenge were essentially equivalent in the lungs of mice immunized with either the highly immunogenic BCG vaccine or the ΔsecA2 M. tuberculosis mutant strain. Specifically, 12 immune biomolecules (including gamma interferon [IFN-γ], interleukin-21 [IL-21], IL-27, IL-17f, CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11) were differentially regulated, relative to the levels for naïve controls, in the lungs of vaccinated mice at this time point. Although the vaccine-related immune responses evoked in mice immunized with the DNA vaccine were relatively limited at 10 days postinfection, upregulation of IFN-γ RNA synthesis as well as increased expression levels of CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11 chemokines were detected.