Age influence on mice lung tissue response to Aspergillus fumigatus chronic exposure

Introduction and objective. Exposure to conidia of Aspergillus fumigatus was described as a causative factor of a number of the respiratory system diseases, including asthma, chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and bronchopulmonary aspergillosis. The study investigates the effects of the repeated exposure to A. fumigatus in mice pulmonary compartment. Our work tackles two, so far insufficiently addressed, important aspects of interaction between affected organism and A. fumigatus: 1) recurrent character of exposure (characteristic for pathomechanism of the abovementioned disease states) and 2) impact of aging, potentially important for the differentiation response to an antigen. Materials and methods. In order to dissect alterations of the immune system involved with both aging and chronic exposure to A. fumigatus, we used 3- and 18-month-old C57BL/6J mice exposed to repeated A. fumigatus inhalations for 7 and 28 days. Changes in lung tissue were monitored by histological and biochemical evaluation. Concentration of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in lung homogenates was assessed by ELISA tests. Results and conclusions. Our study demonstrated that chronic inflammation in pulmonary compartment, characterized by the significant increase of proinflammatory cytokines (IL1, IL6, IL10) levels, was the dominant feature of mice response to repeated A. fumigatus inhalations. The pattern of cytokines’ profile in the course of exposure was similar in both age groups, however in old mice the growth of the cytokines’ levels was more pronounced (especially in case of IL1).