FIG 10.

Egr-1-deficient mice show enhanced nitric oxide production and upregulated iNOS mRNA expression following P. aeruginosa lung infection. Wild-type (+/+) and Egr-1-deficient (−/−) mice were intranasally infected with 1 × 10⁹ CFU/mouse of P. aeruginosa 8821 for 4 h or 24 h or with an equivalent volume of saline solution as a control (NT). Mice are sacrificed after infection time points. The NO₂− levels in lung lysates (A), lung supernatants (B), BALF lysates (C), and BALF supernatants (D) were assessed using a Griess reagent kit (n = 7 to 9 ± SEM; *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01). The total RNA extracted from lungs was reverse transcribed to cDNA and subjected to real-time quantitative PCR for iNOS gene expression. The gene expression was normalized to the HPRT housekeeping control gene (E) (n = 3 ± SEM; *, P < 0.05).