Nitration of the Egg-Allergen Ovalbumin Enhances Protein Allergenicity but Reduces the Risk for Oral Sensitization in a Murine Model of Food Allergy
Figure 2
Elevated titers of OVA-specific IgG1 and IgG2a antibodies are observed after oral immunizations with OVA and snOVA under gastric acid suppression.
(A) Increased levels of OVA-specific IgG1 antibodies are detected in the gastric acid suppressed animals receiving OVA or snOVA ig. as well as in the groups immunized ip. with OVA, snOVA and nOVA. Animals of groups fed with OVA, snOVA or nOVA alone or nOVA under gastric acid suppression and the naïve animals revealed only marginal or undetectable IgG1 titers. (B) Specific IgG2a antibodies are also detected only in animals immunized with OVA or snOVA ig. under concomitant gastric acid suppression as well as in the ip. injected groups. In the other groups the levels remained at the baseline. The boxes represent the inner quartiles value range of the six immune sera with the median indicated. Sera with signals more than 1.5-fold interquartile range deviation from the end of the box were defined as outliers and marked as circles. Sera with titers lying more than 3-fold interquartile range away were defined as extremes and marked with asterisks. Brackets indicate the groups with statistical significant differences in antibody titers (**P<0.01).