Murine splenocytes from both vaccinated groups were stimulated
ex vivo with recombinant Sm-Cathepsin B in order to analyze
the differences in cytokine secretion levels. There were no signifi-
cant changes in cytokine secretion levels between the saline and
adjuvant control groups for all of the cytokines analyzed. Compared
to the two groups of control mice, the mice that had been
immunized with the formulation containing the recombinant protein
had significantly higher Th1 cytokine secretion levels (Fig. 4).
IFN- (Fig. 4a) and TNF-˛ (Fig. 4b) were both significantly higher
in these vaccinated animals compared to the adjuvant controls
(p = 0.0015 and p < 0.0001, respectively) as well as the saline controls
(p = 0.0013 and p < 0.0001, respectively). By contrast, there
were no significant differences in the levels of the Th2 cytokines
when comparing the group immunized with the recombinant protein
plus adjuvant to either control group (Fig. 5). IL-4 (Fig. 5a)
and IL-5 (Fig. 5b) levels did not vary significantly between the
experimental group and the adjuvant control group (p = 0.7571
and p = 0.1666, respectively) nor between the experimental group
and the saline control group (p = 0.1192 and p = 0.3412, respectively).
The group immunized with Sm-Cathepsin B in the presence
of adjuvant also had significant increases in IL-10 (Fig. 6a) and
CCL5 (Fig. 6b) secretion levels compared to the adjuvant control
group (p = 0.0037 and p = 0.0381, respectively) and the saline group
(p = 0.0021 and p = 0.0265, respectively).