Route-dependent immune-inflammatory and tissue remodeling responses to BCG injection in mice.

Authors

Hui Liu, Wei Na, Aiqin Li, Songlin Guo, Wenling Chen, Ying Yang, Yonghong Yang, Lu Ding, Jinyuan Zhu, Xu Zhang

Published in

Experimental animals. Sep 10, 2026. Epub Sep 10, 2026.

Abstract

Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) activates innate immune responses, but its tissue effects depend on the route of administration. We compared intra-airway (IA) and intravenous (IV) BCG administration in female C57BL/6N mice using a matched longitudinal design from immediately after administration through day 28. Outcomes included body and organ weights, gross pathology, histology, collagen and iron deposition, and pulmonary inflammatory-marker expression. IA-BCG reduced body-weight gain and produced marked pulmonary inflammation, collagen deposition, and increased staining for inflammatory and fibrosis-related markers. IV-BCG caused minimal pulmonary injury but produced hepatosplenomegaly, periportal hepatic collagen deposition, splenic hemorrhage, and splenic iron accumulation. These findings define distinct route-associated tissue phenotypes under matched experimental conditions. IA administration provides a model for pulmonary inflammation and remodeling, whereas IV administration provides a model for hepato-splenic responses. Bacterial burden, immune-cell composition, and causal signaling pathways were not assessed.

PMID:
42716796
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Sep 2026.

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