FIG. 4.

PTX3 induces functional recovery of Th1 cells. Bone marrow-transplanted mice, generated as detailed in the legend to Fig. 1, were infected intranasally with 2 × 10⁷ Aspergillus conidia and treated with 1 mg of PTX3/kg intraperitoneally either before (▧) or from the day of the infection and continuing for additional 5 days (░⃞). At 3 days after the infection, the levels of IL-12 p70 and IL-10 were determined by specific ELISAs in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (A), the numbers of CD4⁺ T splenocytes producing cytokines were enumerated by ELISPOT assays (B), and the cytokine gene expression on CD4⁺ splenocytes was determined by real-time PCR. Bars indicate the standard errors. *, P < 0.05, infected versus uninfected mice; **, P < 0.05, PTX3-treated versus untreated mice. (□, uninfected mice; ▪, infected mice).