Suppressive activity of a macrolide antibiotic, roxithromycin on co-stimulatory molecule expression on mouse splenocytes in vivo

Abstract

The influence of roxithromycin (RXM) on the expression of co-stimulatory molecules, CD40, CD80 and CD86, was examined in vivo. When BALB/c mice were immunized intraperitoneally with two doses of dinitrophenylated ovalbumin (DNP-OVA) at 1 week intervals, intraperitoneal administration of RXM at 250 μg/kg once a day for 14 days strongly suppressed IgE contents in sera obtained from mice 22 days after the first immunization. In addition, RXM treatment of mice suppressed endogenous IL–4 contents in aqueous spleen extracts, which were enhanced by DNP-OVA immunization. We next examined the influence of RXM on co-stimulatory molecule expression on splenic lymphocytes. RXM treatment of the immunized mice caused suppression of CD40 expression, but this treatment did not affect CD80 and CD86 expression.