A murine model of allergy caused by American cockroach (CR), Periplaneta americana

An animal model resembling the human immuno-pathological features of CR allergy is needed for CR allergy research, e.g., measuring allergenicity of novel allergens, testing immunotherapeutic efficacies of drugs and vaccines. In this study we develop a murine model of American CR, P. americana allergy. BALB/c mice, 6 weeks old, were individually intraperitoneally injected with three doses (days 0, 7 and 14) of alum adjuvanted-crude extract of P. americana. On days 21 and 23, they were given crude CR extract in PBS intranasally (10 microl) and aerosolically (10 ml) via an air-pressure nebulizer, respectively. Mice received alum alone and PBS instead of the CR extract served as non-allergenic controls. All mice were bled twenty four hours after the nebulization and sacrificed. Their serum samples, broncho-alveolar lavage fluids (BALF), and lung tissues were collected. BALF of all allergen-treated mice had marked cellular infiltration notably neutrophils, eosinophils and lymphocytes. The average total cell count in BALF of the allergenic mice was 1.9 x 10(5) cells/ml which out-numbered those of the non-allergenic controls (8 x 10(4) cells/ml). The eosinophil infiltration was pronounced in lungs of the allergen-treated mice. Specific serum IgE to the CR extract elevated in serum samples of all allergen treated mice and nil in the sera of the controls. None of the mice showed detectable level of IgG2a to the CR extract. RT-PCR revealed that all allergen-treated mice had marked increase of IL-13, IL-4 and TNF-alpha gene expressions, slight increase of IL-5 gene expression, and absence of detectable IFN-gamma gene expression in comparison to the non-allergenic controls. None of the allergen-treated mice and 50% of the non-allergenic controls had IL-12 gene expression as detected by RT- PCR. One allergen treated-mouse (25%) had subpar level of the IL-18 gene expression compared to the controls. Results of the quantitative real-time PCR conformed to those of the RT-PCR. A murine model of P. americana resembling human allergic manifestations was successfully developed.