Assessment of the ability of two differently constructed equine viral vaccines to induce systemic inflammation

Equine vaccines generally induce good serum antibody titers, and help control infectious diseases. Vaccine must induce an inflammatory response to initiate the adaptive immune response. However, the nature of the productive inflammatory response is not yet clear. Further, vaccinations can be associated with undesired inflammatory outcomes at the time of vaccination. In this study, we measured immediate inflammatory activation induced by two commercial equine vaccines relative to environmental controls over the first 48 hours after vaccination. We measured TNF-a and the prosataglandins, PGF2a and PGE2, using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We observed changes in the levels of both TNF-a and the prostaglandins relative to vaccination, but we found that there was no significant change in either relative to the environmental controls or the other vaccine. These studies suggest that neither assay will provide a sufficient test for vaccine induced systemic inflammatory activation