tb infection [31], although with respect to IL-4 some mouse models do not provide a good model of

human immunopathology [32]. It is possible that the TH2 cytokine responses and the IL-10 responses do not simply reflect a regulation of the IFNγ responses, but may also reflect that there is a polyclonal response of mixed T cell populations, and some of the IL-10 measured may be inhibitors produced by fully differentiated TH1 T cells [33] and [34]. In Malawian infants, a smaller increase in TH1 cytokines has been seen following BCG vaccination than in the UK [6], and one hypothesis for this is that there may be suppression/immunoregulation by TH2 cytokines and/or by T regulatory cells and IL-10. We found a significant increase in TH2 cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13, and also in the regulatory cytokine IL-10 MEK inhibitor following BCG vaccination in UK infants who we presume made an immune response to BCG that was protective against the disseminated childhood forms of TB. The high levels of TH2 cytokines seen in the UK vaccinated infants may have been produced in Duvelisib mw response to the high levels of IFNγ produced, in order to regulate the IFNγ response. IL-5 and IL-13 both correlated positively with the IFNγ response in vaccinated infants, but the correlation between the IL-10 and IFNγ response was weak and negative. There was stronger evidence

of a negative association between pro-inflammatory responses and IL-10 when all pro-inflammatory responses were added together, possibly suggesting that IL-10 regulates the entire pro-inflammatory cytokine profile. Chemokines have been shown to be important in immunity to tuberculosis [35], particularly in cellular trafficking for granuloma formation [36]. We found that the chemokines IL-8 (CXCL8), IP-10 (CXCL10) and MIP-1α (CCL3) were Megestrol Acetate all induced by BCG vaccination. The growth factors G-CSF and GM-CSF were also increased in

BCG vaccinated infants; GM-CSF has been shown to have many roles in immunity to TB such as inducing the generation and proliferation of cells such as macrophages, DCs and neutrophils, but also by acting to recruit leukocytes and to enhance APC function and may be necessary for optimum T cell immunity [37] and [38]. Principal components analysis was performed in order to reduce the dimensionality of the data, to attempt to summarise the overall pattern of response among the 15 cytokines. We summarised 68% of the total variation in the data by using just 2 components. These two components suggest that all 15 cytokines and chemokines measured are important, rather than just a particular subset, and that all 15 cytokines and chemokines are useful in describing the variation in immune response among individuals.