| Intraperitoneal injection of a Lactobacillus cell wall extract (LCWE) into mice can cause coronary arteritis histologically resembling Kawasaki Disease. Our study aimed to correlate the histologic outcome after injection of a disease inducing (DI) or a non-disease inducing (NDI) preparation of Lactobacillus cell wall extract (LCWE) with kinetics of cytokine expression in vivo. We hypothesized early cytokine events mediate the pathogenesis of coronary artery lesions resulting from LCWE-DI injection. C57BL/6 mice were injected with LCWE-DI and LCWE-NDI and assessed by standard histologic techniques after 28 days. Injected mice were also sacrificed over a time course of 72 hours and examined for splenic expression of tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, interleukin-2, interleukin-4, and interleukin-6 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Coronary arteritis was found in the LCWE-DI group but not LCWE-NDI. The cytokine mRNA profiles suggest that LCWE-DI induced arteritis may be a T cell dependent macrophage mediated process reflective of superantigen etiology. |
