Fig. 3.

HDE-induced cytokine production is inhibited by protease depletion in mouse lung slice cultures. Precision-cut 150-μm-thick lung slices from naive mice were cultured in growth medium for 3–8 days before being challenged with complete 5% HDE, protease-depleted HDE, medium alone, or protease inhibitors alone for 24 h. Supernates from the ex vivo cultures were assayed for mouse cytokines and normalized for total protein in the homogenized tissue. Values are mean cytokine release ± SE for data from 4 independent experiments and 3 technical replicates for each condition. KC, keratinocyte-derived chemokine; CXCL, CXC chemokine ligand; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-α; MIP-2, macrophage inflammatory protein-2. *P < 0.05 vs. complete HDE. #P < 0.05 vs. all other conditions.