Fig 2.

Conditional reporter mice confirm that epithelial cells and macrophages are the dominant IFN-β producers in mouse lungs during infection with SC35M-ΔNS1. Conditional reporter mice expressing Cre recombinase in epithelial cells (Nkx), macrophages/monocytes (LysM), CD11c⁺ cells (CD11c), or macrophages/monocytes and CD11c⁺ cells (LysM/CD11c) were infected with SC35M-ΔNS1. (A) Lungs were removed and tested for luciferase activity at the indicated time points. Values represent means ± standard errors of the means (SEM) for groups of animals (n ≥ 6) from each time point. (B) Luciferase values from infected conditional reporter mice expressing the luciferase gene exclusively in the indicated cell types were compared to luciferase values from infected “global” reporter mice. Values from “global” reporter mice were set to 100% and depicted as full-sized pies at each time point. The sizes of the pies are proportional to total luciferase activities at a particular time point postinfection.