TNF-α expression in the lung after infection.

<p>Amount of TNF-α in the lungs of 4–6 weeks (A) und 19 months (B) old BALB/c mice after infection with RSV, HMPV or double infection: 4–6 weeks and 19 months old BALB/c mice were infected with 2×10⁷ geq RSV or HMPV, or co-infected with 1×10⁷ geq of each virus. Untreated animals, animals anesthetized and treated with cell culture supernatant or PBS or only anesthetized served as controls. Mice were killed by cervical dislocation and the lungs were removed and homogenised. The amount of TNF-α was determined by ELISA. Values were standardized referring to non treated controls (n = 3–5, values are shown as mean ± standard deviation). * significantly different to untreated animals (p<0.05). # signifcantly different to cell culture infected animals (p<0.05).