Fig. 1.

HDM-induced allergic asthma and dsRNA-triggered exacerbation in WT and IL-1β^−/− mice. HDM was used as a challenging agent for three weeks to induce experimental asthma in mice. Control mice received saline challenges for three weeks and both groups were terminated 72 h after the last challenge. In addition, four groups of mice continued the study and received saline control or dsRNA intranasally for three consecutive days to provoke exacerbation, in both WT and IL-1β^−/− mice. The dsRNA stimulus is a synthetic molecule also known as Poly(I:C) and served as a mimic of rhinoviral replication. The experiment was terminated at day 24, 24 h after the last dsRNA stimulation