The virus challenge was carried out

under isoflurane anesthesia to ensure deposition of the virus into the lungs. Mice were monitored, twice a day at fixed time points, for clinical signs of illness including weight loss, changes in behavior and STI571 ic50 appearance. Mice were bled and sacrificed on day 30. Serum samples were collected for ELISA assay. Spleens were harvested and splenocytes were used for ELISPOT assay. The lung lobes were collected and stored in 1 ml PBS in a −80 °C freezer for later homogenization and lung virus titer detection. Influenza HA-specific antibody titers were determined by ELISA [21]. Briefly, ELISA plates (Greiner, Alphen a/d Rijn, Netherlands) were coated with 0.2 μg of PR8 influenza subunit antigen per well. Twofold serial dilutions of serum samples in PBST (0.05% Tween 20 in PBS) were applied to the wells in duplicate and incubated for 1.5 h. Horseradish peroxidase-conjugated goat antibody against mouse IgG-isotypes (Southern Biotechnologies) was added for the detection of bound H1N1-specific IgG, IgG1 or IgG2a antibodies. All incubations were carried out at 37 °C. SB431542 in vitro The staining was performed with substrate buffer (50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 5.5, containing 0.04% o-phenylenediamine and 0.012% H2O2) and the absorbance at 492 nm (A492) was measured using an ELISA reader (Bio-tek instruments, Inc., Vermont, U.S.A.). Titers (with the standard error of the means (S.E.M.))

are given as the 10log of the reciprocal of the sample dilution calculated to correspond to an A492 of 0.2. almost For calculation purposes, sera with titers below detection limit were assigned an arbitrary 10log titer corresponding to half of the detection limit. Calibration plates for IgG1 and IgG2a assay were coated with 0.1 μg goat anti-mouse IgG (Southern Biotechnologies). Increasing concentrations of purified mouse IgG1 or IgG2a (Southern Biotechnologies) were added to the plates. Sample IgG1 and IgG2a titers were expressed as concentrations (μg/ml) of influenza HA-specific IgG1 and IgG2a ± S.E.M. ELISA plates were coated with purified rat IgG1 against mouse IFN-γ or IL-4 (Pharmingen, San Diego, CA) [21]. Freshly

isolated splenocytes (500,000 cells per well) were added to the plates in triplicate in medium containing 5% fetal calf serum with or without PR8 subunit (1 μg per well). After an overnight incubation at 37 °C, cells were lysed in ice-cold water and plates were washed. IFN-γ detection was carried out by 1 h incubation with biotinylated anti-mouse IFN-γ antibody followed by a subsequent incubation with streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase (Pharmingen) for 1 h. Spots were developed by adding 100 μl of substrate solution to each well. The substrate solution included 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate in water containing 6 mg/ml agarose (Sigma), 9.2 mg/ml 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (Sigma) and 0.08 μl/ml Triton X-405 at 1 mg/ml.