Temporal changes in the gene signatures of BCG-vaccinated guinea pigs in response to different mycobacterial antigens

Abstract Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccination in the guinea pig model of tuberculosis (TB) is sufficiently protective that candidate TB vaccines are judged against this. Little is understood about how the BCG vaccine works and, in the absence of a definitive correlate of protection, it is difficult to interpret the significance of novel vaccine induced host responses. Here an extended custom-made microarray (86 guinea pig genes) was used to dissect temporal changes in BCG-vaccine induced gene signatures to different mycobacterial antigens. Initially at 4 h, pro-inflammatory genes such as IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-8 and GRO were up-regulated ( P P