Figure 7.

Deficiency of the ASC or IL-1 receptor decreases pulmonary inflammation upon H7N9 infection. (a,b) WT or Asc ^−/−, Il1r1 ^−/− mice were infected as in Fig. 2 and the lungs were harvested on 3d.p.i or 7d.p.i, then the tissues were fixed and processed for H&E staining and microscopic analyses. The original magnification of the top panels and the bottom panels are 200× and 400× (with the corresponding scale bar on the images). In the 400× magnification, the black arrows indicate the thickening of alveolar septum and the green arrows show inflammatory cells infiltration. (c) For scoring results of pulmonary pathology of WT, Asc ^−/− and Il1r1 ^−/− mice, 4 slides from each mouse were monitored. 4 mice representing each genotype at specific time points were used for experiments. Data are representative of three independent infection experiments.