Figure 3.

Cytokine and chemokine levels in sera (a) and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid (b) of mice inoculated by aerosol with type A F. tularensis. Groups of LTα−/− (open symbols) and LTα+/+ (closed symbols) mice (n = 5) were challenged by aerosol with low-dose type A F. tularensis strain, FSC033 (inhaled dose of ~10 organisms) on day 0, and blood samples and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples were collected at dpi 0, 2, and 4. Cytokine and chemokine levels in the serum and BAL fluid were determined using the Beadlyte Mouse 21-Plex Cytokine Detection System on a Luminex 100 IS instrument. Each symbol represents the corresponding cytokine concentration of an individual mouse. Horizontal lines indicate the median of each group of mice on the indicated post-inoculation days. The detection limits of the assays were <5 pg/ml for both sera and BAL fluid.*P < .05 versus LTα+/+ mice.