title: [L-arginine enhances Th1 immune response against Plasmodium yoelii 17XL infection in DBA/2 mice via activation of dendritic cells].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of L-arginine (L-Arg) during blood-stage infection by P.y17XL in DBA/2 mice.
  
  
  METHODS
  DBA/2 mice were divided into 2 groups, 20 mice in each group. Mice were respectively administered with L-Arg (1.5 g/kg, L-Arg group) and normal saline (control group) 7 days before they were infected intraperitoneally by 1 x 10(6) pRBC. Parasitemia were detected by Giemsa stained thin-smear microscopy and survival rate were monitored daily. Flow cytometry was introduced to detect the subsets of splenic CD4+CD69+ T cells, F4/80+CD36+ macrophages, myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) (CD11c+CD11b+), plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) (CD11c+B220+) on day 3, 5 post infection (p.i.). The levels of IFN-gamma and NO in the supernatant of splenocytes culture were detected by ELISA and Griess reaction, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Pre-treatment of mice with L-Arg significantly decreased the parasitemia from 45% to 20% and shortened self-cure time from 22d to 20d after infection. The level of F4/80+CD36+ macrophages [(29.61 +/- 0.47)%], IFN-gamma [(485.84 +/- 39.31) pg/ml], CD4+CD69+ T cells [(7.3 +/- 0.68)%], NO [(42.51 +/- 1.32) micromol/L], mDCs(CD11c+CD11b+) [(5.51 +/- 0.87)%] and pDCs(CD11c+B220+) [(5.60 +/- 0.85)%] in L-Arg group was higher than those in control group [(36.46 +/- 1.33)%, (767.86 +/- 20.56) pg/ml, (11.27 +/- 0.97)%, (78.66 +/- 2.89) micromol/L, (10.02 +/- 0.37)%] and (9.01 +/- 0.53)%, respectively].
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  L-Arg enhances Th1 immune responses during the early stage of P.y17XL infection in DBA/2 mice via the activation of DCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001 China.
authors.forename: Yan-yan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Ya-ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity; D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000276:immunology* / Q000494:pharmacology; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D008288:Malaria / Q000276:immunology* / Q000469:parasitology; D051379:Mice; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D010967:Plasmodium yoelii / Q000472:pathogenicity; D018417:Th1 Cells / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D001120:Arginine