Figure 1

Ingestion of fluorescence-labelled S. aureus Newman and Newman eap cells by alveolar macrophages over time in wild-type and SP-A^−/−mice (n = 4–10). (A, B) Normal lung histology was observed after the experiment in the SP-A deficient animals (A) and in the wild-type animals (B). (C, D) A representative image of intravital microscopy shows bright, shining phagocytes in the alveoli which have ingested fluorescent bacteria. Clearly less of those phagocytes could be seen in SP-A deficient animals (C) compared to wild-type animals (D). (E- H) The count of such cells is presented in three subsequent intervals (E , F , G). A slight increase was observed over time (H).