Fig. 4

Functional respiratory assessment on days 4 and 10 post-infection. Upper Panels: Baseline airway reactivity expressed as thoracic resistance (Rrs), thoracic compliance (Crs), and large airway resistance (Rn). Lower Panels: Methacholine responsiveness shown as ‘area under the curve’ (AUC) of Rrs, Crs and Rn against methacholine concentration. The values are mean ± SD (3 to 5 separate experiments, 3 to 7 mice per condition, 33 mice). Asterisks designate p < 0.05 compared with DMSO. Increased thoracic and large airway resistances and decreased thoracic compliance were evident in IAV-infected mice on days 4 and 10 (upper panels). These changes (at both baseline and after methacholine) were less pronounced on day 4 and more severe on day 10 in IAV-infected mice that were administered sirolimus (lower panels)