Figure 3.

IL-15 receptor, α chain (IL-15Rα)^−/− transplant recipients demonstrate enhanced lung allograft rejection in the absence of natural killer (NK) cells. (a) Kinetics of lung-infiltrating CD45⁺NKp46⁺ NK cells in allotransplanted wild-type versus IL-15Rα^−/− mice from Day 1 to Day 5 after transplantation. (b) Representative lung sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin in IL-15Rα^−/− allotransplanted mice on the indicated days after transplantation (representative images for five mice per group). (c) Representative magnetic resonance images from allotransplanted wild-type and IL-15Rα^−/− mice on Days 1, 3, and 5 after transplantation. Infiltrations into lungs were assessed in four regions of interest for each lung and expressed by proton density in arbitrary units comparing transplanted with contralateral, normal lungs (percent differences, seven mice per group were analyzed, means ± SEM, *P < 0.05).