Figure 4.

PMN from Adamts13 ^−/− mice show no defect in activation or phagocytosis after contact with A. fumigatus. PMN (10⁶/ml) derived from wildtype (129/Sv/Pas) or Adamts13 ^−/− mice were stimulated with A. fumigatus conidia (10⁶ conidia/ml) or conidia grown for 16 h to build hyphae (10⁶ conidia/ml). (A) The oxidative burst activity was assessed as described above (in Fig. 3C). (B) The expression of CD11b and CD62L was determined by flow cytometry gating on Ly6G⁺ cells after 4 h and normalized to untreated cells (medium). Depicted are the cumulative results of two independent experiments plus SD (129/Sv/Pas and Adamts13 ^−/−, n = 5). (C) After 1 h incubation with FITC-labeled A. fumigatus conidia (10⁶ conidia/ml) phagocytosis was determined by flow cytometry. The uptake of unlabeled conidia was used as negative control. One representative experiment performed in triplicates of two independent experiments is shown. A one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s posttest detects no significant difference (p < 0.05) between PMN from wildtype and Adamts13 ^−/− mice.