Germinating <i>A. fumigatus</i> Conidia Are Highly Inflammatory

<div><p>(A) Absolute number of BAL cells, total neutrophils in BAL, and total macrophages in BAL for C57BL/6 mice 24 h after intratracheal instillation with either heat-killed swollen conidia or live conidia. The bar graphs show the average cell numbers + standard deviation from four mice per group.</p><p>(B) Flow cytometric analysis of live BAL cells stained for Ly6G and CD11c as in <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.0010030#ppat-0010030-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>B.</p><p>(C) <i>A. fumigatus</i> conidia were allowed to initiate germination for 3, 5, or 7 h, heat-killed, and added to BMMØ cultures for 18 h. TNF-α/MIP-2 concentrations in the supernatants were determined by ELISA. The bar graphs represent the average ± standard deviation of three wells per condition. One of four experiments is shown.</p>