Figure 2

Distribution of A. fumigatus conidia and Ly-6G⁺neutrophils along the mouse conducting airway. The conducting airway was dissected from the right inferior lung lobe of intact mice that received 5 × 10⁶A. fumigatus conidia 4 hours prior to dissection. (A) Microdissected mouse airway represented as montage of the number of confocal images scanned with low magnification from the luminal side of the specimen was arbitrarily separated (dashed lines) into proximal, distal, dorsal, and ventral regions. (B) Representative three-dimensional image showing the distribution of Ly-6G⁺ neutrophils (green) and TRITC-labeled A. fumigatus conidia (red) in the conducting airway mucosa. (C) The single conidium and (D) neutrophil indicated in (B) are represented as the three-dimensional objects. (E) The conidium located on the luminal side of the conducting airway epithelium, (F) in the subepithelial area, and (G) parenchymal tissue, is indicated by arrows on Z-projections (top view: E, F, G upper panels) and Y-projections (front view: E, F, G lower panels). Epithelial and subepithelial compartments were separated based on epithelium auto-fluorescence (dashed line on E, F, G lower panels). Scale bar = 20 μm (B, E, F, G); scale bar and greed spacing = 1 μm (C), and 5 μm (D).