Figure 8. Itk-deficient mice are resistant to papain-induced lung inflammation.

(a) Outline of papain-induced sensitization. (b) PAS-stained sections of lungs harvested at day 14 from WT and Itk^−/− mice challenged with papain or PBS, airways (aw) and blood vessels (bv) are marked. Scale bar, 50 μm. (c) Absolute numbers of macrophages, neutrophils and eosinophils in the BAL of mice treated with papain or PBS. (d) Airway resistance was measured in response to increasing doses of aerosolized methacholine in mice challenged with papain or PBS. **P<0.01 by two-way ANOVA. (e) Numbers of IL-9, IL-4 and IL-13–producing CD4⁺CD44^hi T cells in lungs are shown from cells harvested at day 14 from mice challenged with papain or PBS. (f) Numbers of activated (CD44^hi) CD4⁺ cells in lungs after papain or PBS treatment. (g,h) mRNA levels of Il9 (g) and Il2 (h) measured by quantitative RT-PCR are shown for lung samples harvested on day 14 after initial challenge with papain or PBS. Values were normalized to the average level of Il9 mRNA in the PBS-treated WT mice. Experiments were performed at least twice, using six female mice for papain-treated group and four female mice for PBS controls. Mean±s.e.m., *P<0.05, **P<0.01 using Mann–Whitney test (c,e,f).