Fig. 3

Effects of VacA treatment in a model of chronic allergic airway disease. a) Mice were sensitized on day 0 with 1 µg of house dust mite (HDM) given intranasally (i.n.). Mice were challenged with 10 µg HDM on days 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. Subsequently, the positive control and the VacA-treated groups were challenged with 1 µg HDM intratracheally (i.t.) twice a week for 6 weeks. During the chronic challenge phase, two treatment schemes were applied: short-term (T1) = 20 µg intraperitoneal (i.p.) VacA at days 66, 67 and 68, and long-term (T2) = 20 µg VacA i.p. at days 39, 40, and 41 plus days 66, 67 and 68. b) Cellular composition of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL): total cell count (Tcc), macrophages, lymphocytes, neutrophils and eosinophils. c) Lung tissue inflammation: representative sections of each indicated group are depicted (x100); scatter plot depicts inflammation score. d) Mucus-producing cells: pictures show representative sections from each group (x200); scatter plot depicts the number of mucus producing cells per mm of basement membrane. e) Subepithelial collagen deposition: pictures show representative sections from each group (x200); scatter plot shows averaged subepithelial collagen layer thickness in µm for each group; results from two independent experiments n = 5–9 per group. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ****p < 0.0001