as used in the present disclosure , “ inflammation ” refers to the well known localized response to various types of injury or infection , which is characterized by redness , heat , swelling , and pain , and often also including dysfunction or reduced mobility . acute inflammation , according to cruse and lewis , i llustrated d ictionary of i mmunology , 2d ed . ( crc press 2003 ), represents “ an early defense mechanism to contain in infection and prevent its spread from the initial focus . when microbes multiply in host tissues , two principal defense mechanisms mounted against them are antibodies and leukocytes . the three major events in acute inflammation are ( 1 ) dilation of capillaries to increase blood flow ; ( 2 ) changes in the microvasculature structure , leading to escape of plasma and proteins and leukocytes from the circulation ; and ( 3 ) leukocyte emigration from the capillaries and accumulation at the site of injury .” neutrophils escape from their endothelial location and are attracted by chemotaxis toward the site of injury . prostaglandins and leukotrienes are formed , along with various cytokines . non - specific defense mechanisms including natural killer ( nk ) cells are activated by cytokines . by contrast , adaptive responses often take days to develop . for example , kambayashi , et al ., j . immunol . 165 ( 9 ), 4964 - 69 ( 2000 ) report that adaptive cd8 + cells expressing nk receptors develop in the lungs of influenza - infected mice beginning after about day 5 following infection ( see fig1 : cell levels are at control level through day 5 , and begin to increase thereafter to peak at about day 10 ). thus adaptive responses are typically not seen during the first days following an infection . the term “ tisf ” refers to a mammalian polypeptide or mixture of polypeptides of mammalian origin ; the preparation of tisf and its characterization as a novel entity are described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 616 , 554 , which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety . tisf is alternatively referred to as epithyme ™ and as s - celergin at times herein and in other references . a number of factors have been described which stimulate various stages of cd4 + lymphocyte development . tisf stimulates a normally unresponsive population of cells at a later stage of the process while a factor stimulating an earlier stage of the process is described , for example , in beardsley , et al ., pnas 80 : 6005 ( 1983 ). tisf is thus effective as described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 616 , 554 for stimulation of mature t - lymphocytes , resulting in increased antiviral or antitumor activity . herein , its effectiveness for the treatment of inflammation from any etiology , and especially inflammation of the upper respiratory tract , is disclosed . tisf may be obtained by purification from a host animal , but is preferably obtained by purification from a cell culture by methods such as those described in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 616 , 554 , which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety . tisf may be of feline , canine , or bovine origin ; in a preferred embodiment , the tisf administered to a subject originates from the same species as that of the subject to be treated . tisf may be used to treat inflammation in canine , feline , and bovine subjects as well as in human subjects . administration of tisf : tisf may be administered parenterally , intraperitoneally , topically or orally . parenteral administration is often preferred , and subcutaneous injection is sometimes preferred . for treatment of inflammation of the epidermis , topical administration may be preferred . for treatment of inflammation of the mucosa , direct application to the affected area such as by ocular application or inhalation may be preferred . suitable methods for administration by these routes are well known in the art , and suitable formulations for each route of administration may be prepared using methods known in the art . tisf may be admixed with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable diluents , excipients , stabilizing agents , solubilizing agents , or other pharmaceutically - indicated agents , and it may optionally be incorporated into a liposomal or slow - release matrix for administration . suitable pharmaceutical carriers and diluents , as well as pharmaceutical necessities for their use in pharmaceutical formulations , are described in remington &# 39 ; s p harmaceutical s ciences ( alfonso gennaro et al ., eds ., 17th edn ., mack publishing co ., easton pa ., 1985 ), a standard reference text in this field , in the usp / nf , and by lachman et al . ( t he t heory & amp ; p ractice of i ndustrial p harmacy , 2nd ed ., lea & amp ; febiger , philadelphia pa ., 1976 ). in the case of rectal and vaginal administration , the compositions are administered using methods and carriers standardly used in administering pharmaceutical materials to these regions . for example , suppositories , creams ( e . g ., cocoa butter ), or jellies , as well as standard vaginal applicators , droppers , syringes , or enemas may be used , as determined to be appropriate by one skilled in the art . parenteral , intramuscular , intraperitoneal , or other types of injection administration are often advantageous , especially since tisf may be subject to degradation if administered orally ; suitable compositions for such administration are well known to those skilled in the art , and may be identified by analogy to other polypeptide pharmaceutical compositions . the compositions of the invention may be administered by any route clinically indicated , such as by application to the surface of mucosal membranes ( including : intranasal , oral , ocular , gastrointestinal , rectal , vaginal , or genito - urinary ). alternatively , parenteral ( e . g ., intravenous ( iv ), subcutaneous , intraperitoneal , or intramuscular ) modes of administration may also be used . because tisf is a polypeptide , and is thus potentially subject to degradation upon oral or topical administration , administration by parenteral ( injection ) methods including subcutaneous or intramuscular delivery is often preferred . to maximize its efficient utilization , subcutaneous delivery of tisf is often used , and such delivery may be concurrent with delivery of other nutrient , hydration or therapeutic agents as appropriate . for subcutaneous administration , tisf is preferably dissolved in an aqueous or isotonic solution such as saline ; phosphate buffer or other conventional buffers may be added as needed to ensure stability of the composition . further details of compositions suitable for administration of tisf are well - known to those of skill in the art by analogy to other pharmaceutical compositions which contain polypeptides as active ingredients . the amount of tisf to be administered depends on the particular subject and indications , such as the extent , severity and duration of the inflammation as well as the status underlying cause . the mode and frequency of administration can be determined according to the desired effect , as one skilled in the art will appreciate , and the effectiveness of the chosen regimen can readily be ascertained by monitoring improvements in the symptoms of inflammation , allowing the regimen to be optimized for the particular subject being treated . in general , tisf will be administered in compositions which deliver amounts of tisf ranging between about 0 . 1 μg and 50 mg per kilogram of body weight of the subject . preferred doses are generally between about 0 . 5 μg / kg and 10 mg / kg , and more preferably between about 1 μg / kg and 5 mg / kg . a dosage of about 1 μg / kg to 1 mg / kg is often more preferred . administration of tisf to a subject to be treated may be repeated as is determined to be necessary by one skilled in the art , considering the severity of the subject &# 39 ; s inflammation and what other treatments the subject is receiving , or it may be delivered continuously to a subject via an intravenous fluid delivery system or slow - release depot device or other passive or active slow delivery means . while a single administration of tisf has been demonstrated to produce effects lasting for several days , repeated administration at intervals of a few hours to a month are contemplated and are within the scope of the invention . thus tisf may be administered one to three times daily , or it may be administered one or two times per week , or one to two times per month . determination of the dose required and the frequency of treatment required are within the ordinary skill in the art , since dosage and frequency can be adjusted until the desired effect is achieved . progress is readily monitored by well - known techniques for determining the blood cell count for each type of blood cell of interest for the particular subject . since tisf may be used to treat inflammation associated with pathogenic infections , it is also contemplated that tisf may be admixed with or administered with other therapeutic agents suitable for treating such pathogenic infections , including but not limited to antiretroviral agents such as hiv protease inhibitors and reverse transcriptase inhibitors , radiotherapeutic treatments , and antineoplastic therapeutic agents such as alkylating agents , purine nucleoside analogs , and corticosteroids . compositions containing a mixture of such other therapeutic agents with tisf are thus contemplated , as are treatment protocols which utilize tisf in combination with such agents . the present invention can be better understood by way of the following examples which are representative of certain preferred embodiments thereof , but which are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention . tisf derived from cultured bovine thymic cells was supplied as a freeze dried material and was used as a saline solution containing one microgram of protein per ml of saline solution . the subjects used were mustella putorius faro , an outbred albino ferret strain . the subjects were all males , weighing about 600 - 1100 g on the first day of treatment , and were obtained from highgate farm , in england . the testing of tisf in animals was conducted by a contract laboratory familiar with procedures for testing antiviral and similar pharmaceutical candidate molecules in animal models . each treated ferret received 1 ml of this solution subcutaneously , delivering approximately 1 microgram of tisf per animal . control animals received vehicle without tisf added . prior to testing , all animals were primed with influenza a / panama / 2007 / 99 ( h3n2 ) at a titre of approximately 10 6 . 5 tcid 50 / ml , which gave 100 % infection of the ferrets , when 250 microliters of the virus solution was administered intranasally , 21 days before treatment with tisf or a control injection of vehicle lacking tisf . testing was initiated with a low pathogenic influenza strain of avian influenza nibrg - 14 virus ( h5n1 ), where the external proteins of avian influenza a / vietnam / 1194 / 04 ( h5n1 ) virus from which the polybasic ha cleavage site had been excised , and containing the internal genes of human influenza a / puerto rico / 8 / 34 ( h1n1 ). the challenge virus described above at a titre of about 10 5 . 25 tcid 50 / ml using 250 microliter aliquot was administered intranasally to each ferret , providing 100 % infection . a nasal wash was performed on each animal daily following infection using a standard protocol developed by the contract laboratory . cell counts in the nasal wash were determined using a tryptan blue stain , as a method of determining the extent of inflammatory cell response . blood analyses were also made at days 0 , 2 and 4 , and overall health and weight of the test animals were also assessed . animals treated with tisf displayed less weight loss during the test period , and they displayed less severe clinical symptomology , although these effects were not considered statistically significant in this test . virus shedding into the nasal wash was also evaluated , though the levels of virus were generally below detectable levels . on each of the first four days post treatment , leukocyte counts were determined from nasal wash samples for each test animal and each control animal . the results of that testing is summarized in fig1 . fig1 shows that leukocyte levels were lower in animals treated with tisf within the first four days , and it shows a statistical analysis of the data . the treated and control groups were compared using anova , with the bonferonni correction for multiple testing , using log - transformed total leukocyte counts per ml of nasal wash . both the mean sum of leukocyte counts and the mean maximum leukocyte counts were lower in the treated subjects , and the differences were statistically significant for each measure of inflammation . see fig2 and 3 . the lower leukocyte levels in the nasal wash from tisf treated subjects are indicative of less severe inflammation of the nasal passages in the treated animals . cells were stimulated with a solution containing 1 microgram of highly purified tisf . the cells were maintained for 24 hours post - treatment , at which time the supernatant was tested for cytokine levels using the raybio ® mouse cytokine antibody arrays 1 and 1 . 1 from raybiotech . both positive and negative controls were included in the test , and a background array was run as well : the background level of each cytokine has been subtracted from the data in fig4 . tisf stimulated production of at least il - 10 , il - 12 ( anti - inflammatory cytokines ) and gm - csf . it had no effect on tnf - α levels , and may have an inhibitory effect on mcp - 1 ( pro - inflammatory cytokine ). the cytokine level test was performed according to the user manual provided by raybiotech , inc . the foregoing detailed description of the invention and preferred embodiments , especially with respect to product compositions and processes , is to be considered illustrative of specific embodiments only . it is to be understood , however , that additional embodiments may be perceived by those skilled in the art . the embodiments described herein , together with those additional embodiments , are considered to be well within the scope of the present invention .