Gal 9

Animal experiments were performed according to the guidelines of the Animal Care and Use Committee for Kagawa University (Takamatsu, Japan). Ethical approval was obtained from the Animal Care and Use Committee for Kagawa University. A total of 56 male BALB/c mice, at 7 weeks of age, 21–26 g, were purchased from Japan SLC, Inc. (Hamamatsu, Japan). The mice were housed together in a temperature-controlled environment under a 12 h:12 h day:night cycle (light from 07:00 to 19:00) at 22±1°C with freely available food and water throughout the experiment. Mice were given a single intravenous injection of ConA (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) at a dose of 35 mg/kg body weight, and the animals were sacrificed 24 h following ConA administration or were observed for 48 h while checking for survival every 6 h. In the Gal-9 treated group (n=17), 00 µg Gal-9 (Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Takamatsu, Japan) per mouse was injected subcutaneously immediately following the administration of ConA. Controls were treated with only PBS (n=10), only Gal-9 (n=10) or PBS with ConA (n=19).