Pulmonary inflammation and viral loads are higher in IAV-infected <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> lungs.

<p>(A) Macroscopic pictures of the lungs of WT and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice administrated with saline as uninfected control or infected with IAV/PR8 (50 IFU) at 5 and 8 dpi. Bar, 1 cm. (B) Wet lung weights of WT and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice (n = 3) uninfected (Un) and infected with 50 IFU of IAV/PR8 at 3, 5, and 8 dpi. (C) Hemotoxylin-Eosin staining of the lungs of WT and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice uninfected (Un) and infected with 50 IFU of IAV/PR8 at 3, 5, and 8 dpi and immunofluorescent staining for the viral protein NP in the consecutive lung sections. Bar, 200 μm. Insets show 3 times-magnified images of the squares. (D) Atelectatic area in the lungs of WT (n = 3) and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice (n = 3) uninfected (Un) and infected with 50 IFU of IAV/PR8 at 3, 5, and 8 dpi. (E) Levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, in the lungs of WT (n = 3) and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice (n = 3) at uninfected (Un) and infected with 50 IFU of IAV/PR8 at 3, 5, and 8 dpi. (F) Western blotting of the lungs of WT and <i>Prnp</i>^<i>0/0</i> mice uninfected (Un) and infected with 50 IFU of IAV/PR8 at 3, 5, and 8 dpi for viral proteins, NP, NS1, and M2. Actb is an internal control. (G) Quantification of the intensity for each viral protein in (F) after normalization against β-actin. Signal intensity of the proteins in the lungs was evaluated against that in WT lungs at 3 dpi. *, p<0.05; **, p<0.01. Error bars, SD.