Figure 5.

Innate immune responses of alveolar type II cells to SARS-CoV infection. type II cells at an A/L were cultured and inoculated with SARS-CoV, as described in Materials and Methods. After the 4-hour inoculation period, the inoculum was aspirated, and cultures were harvested 6 and 24 hours later. The specific mRNA concentrations of chemokines and cytokines were measured by quantitative RT-PCR, and normalized to the constitutive probe 36B4 (acidic ribosomal phosphoprotein). The white bars represent data from mock-inoculated inserts, and the black bars represent data from SARS-CoV–infected inserts. (A) At 6 hours after virus inoculation, the only significant increase in detected mRNA concentrations involved the interferon-responsive gene ISG56. (B) At 24 hours after virus inoculation, a marked increase in the expression of all selected genes was evident. *P < 0.05. **P < 0.01. ***P < 0.001. The results were derived from six independent donors, with duplicate inserts for each condition and time.