[Efficiency of anti-inflammatory therapy for experimental tuberculosis in genetically tuberculosis-sensitive mice]

The study assessed trends in death rates in genetically tuberculosis-sensitive I/St mice, mycobacterial seeding from their organs, and the magnitude of abnormal changes in the lung after intratracheal Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of recipients. The experimental animals received two anti-inflammatory regimens: 1) a very small-dose intravenous injection of immature antigen-loaded bone marrow-derived syngeneic dendritic cells; 2) the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac injected intramuscularly in the course of disease development. Both anti-inflammatory regimens caused a significant increase in the animals' survival, a reduction in the amount of mycobacteria in the lung and the pulmonary infiltration with lymphoid cells as compared with untreated infected control animals. These findings indicate that suppression of an excessive inflammatory process in the lung may have a beneficial antituberculous effect in tuberculosis-sensitive animals.