FIG. 3.

Antifungal activity of neutrophils against A. fumigatus. Peritoneal neutrophils were incubated with A. fumigatus resting conidia, swollen conidia, or hyphae at 37°C for 15 min for TEM (A, B, and C) or for 2 h for evaluation of conidiocidal activity (D and E) or hyphal damage (F). Note the presence of resting conidia inside the cells (A) and of swollen extracellular conidia and hyphae surrounded by multiple cells (B and C, respectively). Determination of conidiocidal activity against resting (D) or swollen (E) conidia and of hyphal damage (F) was done as detailed in Materials and Methods. Black, hatched, and white bars indicate different neutrophil-to-A. fumigatus ratios (10:1, 5:1, and 1:1, respectively). Bars, 1 μm.