Survival curve, lung histopathology, and neutrophil migration of sham- or CLP-operated mice challenged or not with A fumigatus. (A) At day 15 after sham or CLP surgery, both groups of mice were challenged intratracheally with either saline or 5 × 10⁷A fumigatus conidia, and mouse survival was analyzed up to 7 days after challenges. Each group contained 8 to 10 mice, and data are representative of 2 independent experiments. ^*P < .05 between sham + Asp and CLP + Asp. (B) Pulmonary inflammatory change after A fumigatus conidia challenge in sham (i,iii,v) and CLP (ii,iv,vi) groups. At day 15 after surgery, all mice were challenged via intratracheal injection with saline or 5 × 10⁷ conidia and were killed at day 2. The lung was collected and processed for histology. Paraffin-embedded lung sections were stained with H&E (i-ii) or GMS (iii-vi; fungal material appears black in lung sections [black dots]). Red arrows highlight dead conidia, while blue arrows highlight hyphae growth. Original magnification was × 20 for panels i-iv, and original magnification was × 100 for panels v-vi. (C) Sham and CLP surgery groups were intratracheally challenged with A fumigatus conidia at day 15 after surgery, and BAL was collected at 6 hours and 2 days after fungal challenge. The results shown are expressed as the percentage of neutrophils in the BAL, and each group contained 5 to 6 mice. The data are representative of 3 separate experiments, and are expressed as mean ± SEM. (D) Lung samples were obtained from sham- or CLP-operated mice challenged with either saline or 5 × 10⁷A fumigatus conidia at day 2 after challenge. The tissue was processed for MPO protein concentration assay. The data are expressed as mean ± SEM; each group contained 10 to 12 mice.