Figure 6

Effects of RB6-8C5 treatment on influenza infection of CD8⁺T cell impaired B6.TAP^-/-mice. Groups of 5 B6 or B6.TAP^-/- mice were treated with mAb RB6-8C5 (RB6) to deplete neutrophils, or with either rat IgG (IgG) or diluent alone (PBS) 1 day prior to influenza virus infection and every second day thereafter as described in Materials and Methods. (A) Survival data and (B) weight loss following infection with 10⁴ PFU (high dose) or 10² PFU (low dose) of HKx31. Mice were weighed daily and results expressed as the mean percent weight change of each group ± SEM, compared to the weight immediately prior to infection. For survival curves, data has been pooled from 2 independent experiments (n = 10 mice/group) and for weight change data is taken from one of two independent experiments (n = 5 mice/group) (C) Viral growth in the upper and lower respiratory tract 7 days after infection with 10² PFU of HKx31. Viral loads were determined in homogenates prepared from lungs and nasal tissue at day 7 post-infection by plaque assay on MDCK cell monolayers. Data represent the mean ± 1 SD from 4–5 mice and the dotted line represents the detection limit of the plaque assay. ** indicates viral titres of RB6-8C5-treated mice significantly different to those of the relevant IgG-treated controls (p < 0.01, Student's t-test).