Figure 5. Enhanced and prolonged up-regulation of PRRs in the lungs of A. fumigatus challenged VitD- mice.

Mice were infected intratracheally with 2×10⁷ A. fumigatus conidia. At specific time p.i., mice were sacrificed and lungs were excised, and total RNA and protein was extracted. Expression of dectin-1, TLR2 and TLR4 at the mRNA level was quantified by real-time RT-PCR, and protein levels were quantified by Western blotting (shown in middle panel). Representative data from three independent experiments are shown with n = 3 per group (mean±SE). p<0.001(###), p<0.01(##), p<0.05(#), for comparison of A. fumigatus-challenged VitD+/VitD- versus baseline levels; p<0.001(***), p<0.01(**), p<0.05(*), for comparison of VitD+ and VitD- mice using paired Student's T-test.