Pretreatment with a low dose of concanavalin A attenuated the development of concanavalin A-induced hepatitis / 中国免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the influence of concanavalin A(Con A) pretreatment on the development of the fulminant murine hepatitis induced by an adequate dose of Con A.Methods:An adequate dose of Con A(15 ?g/g.body.wt) was injected intravenously into C57BL/6 mice to provoke severe liver damage,an extensively-used murine hepatitis model.A low dose of Con A(3 ?g/g.body.wt) was administrated intravenously 12 h before injection with an adequate dose of Con A.Liver injury was evaluated by serum transaminase assay and H&E staining.Hepatic lymphocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry and the absolute amount of lymphocytes per liver was calculated.Results:Pretreatment with a low dose of Con A significantly inhibited Con A-induced liver injury.Both the percentage and the absolute number of liver CD3~+T cells in Con A-pretreated mice were lower than those of PBS-pretreated mice.The activation of liver CD3~+T cells in Con A-pretreated mice was also prominently inhibited.Conclusion:Con A pretreatment exerted the negative effect on the development of Con A-induced hepatitis,which may be result from the decreased recruitment of T cells into the liver.The underlying mechanisms are under investigation.