BCG-Moreau vaccination completely abrogated allergen-induced increases in airway resistance and elastance due its effect of reducing bronchoconstriction and alveolar collapse, respectively. Moreover, it significantly inhibited the airway hyperresponsiveness www.selleckchem.com/ferroptosis.html that is a hallmark of asthma. Improvement of airway function was paralleled by inhibition of airway remodeling. The number of α-smooth muscle actin-positive myofibroblasts was reduced in lung tissue in BCG-OVA compared to SAL-OVA group, which may be associated with the observed reduction in collagen deposition and subepithelial fibrosis. The strengths of this paper are the use of BCG-Moreau, a strain widely

used in children vaccination against tuberculosis in Brazil, and the modulation of lung remodeling. We believe that these strengths sufficiently counterbalance limitations such as the use of only one mouse strain (precluding extrapolation of the results to

other strains) and the fact that a prophylactic approach was tested (making the results inapplicable to therapeutic management). The present study has limitations that need to be addressed: (1) it has been described that the presence of viable organisms and granulomas in the lungs needs to be observed in order to characterize BCG immunization. However, this was not observed in our study, probably due analysis at a later time point, more than 60 days (Shaler et al., 2011). Thus, further studies should be performed earlier, see more following BCG administration, to establish the granulomatous inflammation; (2) we hypothesized that the benefits we observed were associated with increased Treg cells or IL-10. However, for the study to be truly mechanistic, we should have demonstrated that the BCG vaccine could no longer protect against OVA-induced asthma in the absence of Tregs or IL-10. Further studies are therefore warranted to address this point. In conclusion, in the present murine model of allergic asthma, the BCG-Moreau strain prevented airway and lung parenchyma remodeling, regardless of administration route and time of vaccination. These beneficial effects may be related to an increase in the number

of Treg cells and many in the production of IL-10 in tandem with a decrease in Th2 (IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13) cytokines. This research was supported by Center of Excellence Program (PRONEX-FAPERJ), Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Carlos Chagas Filho Rio de Janeiro State Research Supporting Foundation (FAPERJ), National Institute of Science and Technology of Drugs and Medicine (INCT-INOFAR), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Level Personnel (CAPES), Coordination Theme 1 (Health) of the European Community’s FP7 (HEALTH-F4-2011-282095). The authors declare no conflict of the interest. The authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Andre Benedito da Silva for animal care, Mrs. Ana Lucia Neves da Silva for her help with microscopy, and Ms.