FIG 8.

ΔnsdC determines impaired leukocyte influx to the lungs of immunocompetent C57BL/6 mice. Mice were inoculated with 5 × 10⁷ conidia of A. fumigatus strains by i.t. route, and cell phenotypes were determined after 72 h of infection. Lungs from mouse groups (n = 3) were excised and digested enzymatically. Cell suspensions were obtained and stained as described in Materials and Methods. The stained cells were analyzed immediately on a FACSLyrics flow cytometer with gating of granulocytes, as judged from forward scatter (FSC) and side scatter (SSC). The number of total CD45⁺ leukocytes (A), CD11b⁺ F4/80⁻ Ly6G⁺ neutrophils (B), CD11b⁺ F4/80⁺ macrophages (C), and inflammatory macrophages (CD11b⁺ F4/80⁺ MHC-II⁺, CD11b⁺ F4/80⁺ CD86⁺, and CD11b⁺ F4/80⁺ CD40⁺, respectively) (D) was assessed. One hundred thousand cells were counted, and the data are expressed as number of positive cells. Data are expressed as means ± standard errors (SE) of the mean and are representative of two independent experiments (*, P < 0.05, and **, P < 0.01).