Abstract
Antibody responses to pneumococcal polysaccharides are decreased in aged mice. Using a system to measure murine antibody responses to the Pnu-Imune vaccine, here we demonstrate that interleukin-10 (IL-l0) has an adjuvant effect in enhancing the vaccine response in the aged. IL-10 increased the vaccine responses of B cells from aged mice in vitro only if either T cells or macrophages were also present. The need for T cells or macrophages could be substituted by cytokines such as IL-1 or IL-5, which are normally made by these accessory cells. Thus, IL-10 appeared to act on B cells directly but it worked in conjunction with other cytokines to induce an antigen specific response. In vivo studies showed that IL-10 administration enhanced antibody responses not only to thymic independent antigens but also to thymic- dependent antigens such as sheep erythrocytes. These data suggest that IL-10 may be useful in enhancing vaccine-specific responses in situations in which the host is immuno- compromised.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-9 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Cellular Immunology |
| Volume | 195 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 10 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health to S.B., by a Career Development award to S.B. from the National Institute of Aging, and by funds from the Tobacco and Health Research Institute of the University of Kentucky. We thank Ms. Heather Macosto and Terri Woods for excellent technical assistance.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Immunology
