Objective: To study the skin inflammation responses induced by heat shock protein 70 (rSj648/hsp70) from Schistosoma japonicum in BALB/c mice.
Methods: BALB/c mice were injected with 20 microg of LPS in abdominal skin or 100 microg of rSj648/hsp70, meanwhile, the PBS-treated group was set as blank. On days 1, 2, 4, 7 after the immunization, dynamic changes of inflammation were observed by staining with HE; and the IFN-gamma mRNA expression was detected by real-time PCR. Results On day 1, the inflammation of the skins derived from mice injected with LPS was obviously, and then fell off gradually after day 1. Compared with the LPS-treated group, the inflammation responses induced by Sj648/hsp70 were longer and more intensive until until day 7.
Conclusions: Heat shock protein 70 (rSj648/hsp70) induces high protection against schistosome-infection contributing to predominant Th1 reaction and the correlation with high expression of IFN-gamma.