Figure 4.

Selective delivery of cytokines to arthritic lesions. Arthritic mice were given an intravenous (i.v.) injection in the lateral tail vein with saline (black circles), L19–IL-2 (black triangles; dashed line), L19–tumour necrosis factor (TNF) α (crosses; dashed line) or L19–IL-10 (open squares) diluted in a volume of 200 μl of saline. Injections were started at day 1 after arthritis onset and then repeated every second day for three injections per animal, as indicated by the arrows. The cumulative doses for the fusion proteins were 60 μg of L19–IL-2, 15 μg of L19–TNF and 450 μg of L19–IL-10 per mouse. The arthritic score was evaluated daily and expressed as the mean ± the standard error of the mean (SEM) (a). Paw swelling was measured every second day and paw thickness was expressed as the mean of all four paws of each animal. The results are displayed as the mean ± SEM for each group (b). Each group contained seven mice. Comparison of targeted delivery and systemic application of IL-10 to arthritic mice. Arthritic mice were given an i.v. injection in the lateral tail vein with saline (black circles), L19–IL-10 (open squares) or HyHel10–IL-10 (crosses; dashed line) diluted in a volume of 200 μl of saline. Injections were started at day 1 of arthritis onset and then repeated every second day for three injections per animal, as indicated by the arrows. The cumulative doses for the fusion proteins were 450 μg per mouse. The arthritic score was evaluated daily and expressed as the mean ± SEM (c). Paw swelling was measured every second day and paw thickness was expressed as the mean of all four paws for each animal. The results are displayed the mean ± SEM for each group (d). Each group contained six mice.