Figure 1

Early chitinase activity in BALF and whole lung (Fisher rats). A) Two days following inoculation, chitinase activity was increased in BALF from rats intratracheally infected with C. neoformans (INF-IT) and C. albicans (CA-IT) when compared to controls. Rats inoculated intraperitoneally with C. neoformans (INF-IP) did not manifest an increase in BALF chitinase activity. Rats inoculated intratracheally with heat-killed C. neoformans (HK-IT) did not demonstrate statistically significant increase in BALF chitinase activity. B) Chitinase activity remained elevated in the BALF on day 14 of infection (BAL-INF) when compared with controls (BAL-PBS). In addition, an increase in whole lung chitinase activity was noted in infected rats (LUNG-INF; n = 4–5 rats/group; *p-value < 0.05 vs. controls).