Maternal allergen immunization during pregnancy in a mouse model reduces adult allergy-related antibody responses in the offspring.

Background: The immune status and allergen exposure of the mother may influence the immune response in the offspring after birth. This relationship may be important both for allergen avoidance strategies and, alternatively, for allergy prophylaxis by allergen exposure of the mother.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of allergen immunization of the mother during pregnancy and postpartum, in relation to the allergy-related immune response (IgE) and the non-allergy-related (IgG2a) response in the offspring.

Fine particles of widely different composition have an adjuvant effect on the production of allergen-specific antibodies.

Diesel exhaust particles (DEP) are reported to increase the specific IgE response to allergens, and results from our laboratory suggest that the particle core of DEP contribute to this adjuvant activity. The purpose of the present study was to explore further the adjuvant effect of particles per se, that is particles by themselves. NIH/Ola mice were given two intraperitoneal injections with ovalbumin (OVA; 10 microg) alone or OVA in combination with PSP, polytetrafluoroethylene (teflon), titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) or amorphous silica particles (2.

Human antibody response to a pneumococcal vaccine in SCID-PBL-hu mice and simultaneously vaccinated human cell donors.

Severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice were transplanted intraperitoneally with human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from nine healthy human donors (SCID-PBL-hu mice). None of the donors had ever received pneumococcal vaccine. Ten days after transplantation, 62 out of 111 transplanted mice and six of the nine donors were vaccinated with a 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.