Mice were housed and bred in the Biomedical Research Facility at University of North Dakota. All the animal procedures have been approved by the UND IACUC committee. K. pneumoniae (ATCC 43816 serotype II) was provided by Dr. V. Miller (Washington University, St. Louis) [[41]]. Bacteria were grown overnight in LB broth at 37°C with shaking. The bacteria were pelleted by centrifugation at 5000 × g. We then anesthetized mice with 45 mg/kg ketamine and intranasally instilled 2 × 105 colony-forming units (CFUs) of K. pneumoniae in

PBS (50 μl). BAL was performed 5 times with 1.0 mL volumes of lavage fluid, while the first 0.5 mL was saved separately for cytokine detection. A cell smear was made from Ivacaftor ic50 learn more the BAL fluid and stained with HEMA-3 (Fisher, Rockford, IL) for cell differential counting. AMs were collected

from the BAL fluid precipitate after centrifuging at 2000 × g for 5 min at 4°C and cultivated in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% newborn calf serum and penicillin/streptomycin in a 5% CO2 incubator. After BAL procedures, the lung, liver, and kidneys were aseptically harvested for homogenization or fixed in 10% formalin or OCT [[42]]. For evaluating bacterial burdens in BAL AMs, and lung tissue, BAL was performed to get rid of the free bacteria. Homogenization of lung tissue was done using liquid nitrogen and samples kept on dry ice before dissolving in RIPA buffer for western blotting analysis or in PBS for CFU and superoxide analysis. For western blotting, the samples were sonicated for three times at 10 s each. Histology slides were made after formalin fixation, and stained with the standard hematoxylin-eosin method [[43]]. For immunohistochemistry assays, we performed OCT fixation and cryosection and stained the slides using the methods described previously [[44]]. AMs were resuspended in lysis solution. Lung or other tissues were homogenized by pestle/mortar in liquid nitrogen and followed

by brief sonication. AMs from BAL fluid or homogenized tissues of the lung, liver, and kidneys were spread on LB plates to enumerate the bacteria that have invaded into AMs or tissues. Free bacteria were killed with polymycin B (200 μg/mL) for 1 h and washed away by lavage. Selected unlavaged selleck inhibitor samples were also saved and assessed to evaluate the differences in cell signaling. The plates were cultured in a 37°C incubator for 18 h, and bacterial colonies were counted [[22]]. Triplicates were done for each sample and control. Cytokine concentrations in BAL fluids (the first 0.5 mL lavage solution) or tissues were measured by standard ELISA kits according to the manufacturer’s instructions (eBioscience company, San Diego, CA) [[45]]. To overcome detection limits (5 pg/mL), we have only used the initial 0.5 mL of lavage solution to determining cytokine concentrations.