FIG 2.
Inflammatory cytokine and chemokine gene expression in the ferret lung after infection with influenza A virus (H1N1pdm). Female ferrets (2 per time point) were infected with 106 TCID50s each of H1N1pdm virus (A/Kentucky/180/2010). The right caudal lung lobe from each H1N1pdm virus-infected and mock-infected (1 ferret per time point) ferret was taken upon euthanasia on days 1, 2, 3, and 7 postinfection and was divided into four sections. Each section was homogenized separately, and cDNA was synthesized for gene expression analysis. Ferret gene-specific primers were developed to cross exons, and RT-PCR was performed to identify the expression of the genes encoding leukocyte chemoattractant chemokines CCL2 (A) and CCL3 (B). Fold expression is compared to the expression of housekeeping controls (GAPDH) and to expression in mock-infected animals by using the ΔΔCT method. Asterisks indicate significant differences between days by nonparametric statistical tests, corrected for multiple comparisons.