Figure 1.

Overexpression of acidic mammalian chitinase results in worse lung function during allergic fungal asthma. Male and female C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) were subjected to the experimental allergic fungal asthma model as described in materials and methods. Twenty-four hours after the last challenge, chitinase activity was measured in clarified bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. A: chitinase activity between female C57BL/6 WT and Chia^−/− mice. Figure A illustrates cumulative data from three independent studies (n = 5–9 mice/group, per study). Each dot represents a single mouse. The middle line represents the mean. ***P value of <0.0001 (two-tailed Student’s t test). Male and female C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice and mice overexpressing acidic mammalian chitinase (SPAM) and transgene negative littermates were subjected to the experimental allergic fungal asthma model as described in the materials and methods. Twenty-four hours after the last challenge, airway function was analyzed via mechanical ventilation using the flexiVent pulmonary function system. Total lung resistance between male WT and SPAM mice (B), airway resistance between male WT and SPAM mice (C), total lung resistance between female WT and SPAM mice (D), airway resistance between female WT and SPAM mice (E), total lung resistance between male littermates and SPAM mice (F), airway resistance between male littermates and SPAM mice (G), total lung resistance between female littermates and SPAM mice (H), and airway resistance between female littermates and SPAM mice (I). The figures (B–I) illustrate cumulative data from two to three independent studies (n = 4–6 mice/group, per study). Data are expressed as means ± SE. *,**P value of <0.05 and <0.01, respectively when comparing asthmatic WT or littermates to SPAM mice (two-way ANOVA). Male and female C57BL/6 wild-type (WT), mice overexpressing acidic mammalian chitinase (SPAM) and transgene negative littermates were subjected to the experimental allergic fungal asthma model as described in materials and methods. Twenty-four hours after the last challenge, chitinase activity were measured in clarified BAL fluid. J: chitinase activity between female WT and SPAM mice and male littermate and SPAM mice. The figure illustrates cumulative data from three independent studies (n = 4–6 mice/group, per study). Each dot represents a single mouse. The middle line represents the mean. ***P value of <0.0001 (two-tailed Student’s t test). [Image created with BioRender.com.]