Figure 2.

Innate immunity activation in response to repeated exposure to GO and MWCNTs. Whole lung samples and broncho‐alveolar lavage fluids (BALF) were analyzed to evaluate innate immunity activation. a) Phenotyping of granulocytes in the whole lung (flow cytometry) and BALF (colorimetric staining). b) Gene expression (RT‐qPCR) and protein levels (ELISA) in the whole lung. c) Phenotyping of macrophages and monocytes in the whole lung (flow cytometry) and BALF (colorimetric staining). For cell phenotyping in BALF, gene expression, and protein concentration, one‐way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's post‐hoc test or Kruskall–Wallis followed by Dunn's post‐hoc test was used to evaluate significant differences compared to the negative control for each time‐point (n = 6; ^* p < 0.05, ^** p < 0.01, and ^*** p < 0.001). Two‐way ANOVA followed by Dunnett's post‐hoc test was used to evaluate changing in the number of cells in the whole lung (n = 3; ^* p < 0.05, ^** p < 0.01, and ^*** p < 0.001).