In brief, C. albicans, Selleckchem BYL719 strain MYA-2876 (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA), was cultured following the Shandong Eye Institute Biosafety Code. Blastospores were harvested, washed, and suspended in a saline buffer at a concentration of 1 × 108/mL. For all experiments, at least four mice were included in one group setting for each readouts, except

for otherwise stated. For inoculation, the corneas were pierced near the center with a 30-gauge needle through to the stroma. A 33-gauge needle with a 30-degree bevel (Hamilton, Reno, NV, USA) was used to inject 1 μL of blastospore suspension (1 × 105) into the center of the cornea of only the left eye. In the sham-infection group, the same volume of saline buffer was substituted for the fungal suspension. In some experiments, 10 ng CXCL2 (Cell Sciences, Canton, MA, USA) was included with each suspension. The corneas were monitored daily (or at shorter intervals during the first day postinfection in some experiment) using a slit lamp equipped with a FDA-approved Drug Library cost digital camera, and assessed according to a 12-point scoring system [48]. Briefly, the disease was scored according to three indexes, namely area of corneal opacity, density of corneal opacity, and surface regularity, each of which

was given a grade of 0–4, with the highest score for uniform opacity in over three-quarters of the corneal area, perforation (never seen in this study), and descemetocele. At the desired time points, blood was collected from individual mice via tail venipuncture and used for ELISA measurement of cytokines. Some mice

were euthanized, MG-132 nmr and the corneas were harvested using a 2 mm diameter trephine and used for histological analysis, pathogen burden assay, or mRNA expression assay, as described below. To establish the dermatitis models, C. albicans blastospores (1 × 105) were inject into the deep dermis layers of ear skin. The injection sites were monitored daily for redness, swelling, and other clinical signs, and pictures were taken using a digital camera. Numeric scoring of the disease was not attempted. All antibodies and their usage protocols for cell depletion or cytokine neutralization are detailed in Supporting Information Table 1. Briefly, the mice were treated via intraperitoneal injection with anti-CD4, anti-CD25, anti-TCRγδ, or their respective isotype controls for three consecutive days starting from day 4 before CaK induction. Alternatively, they were treated only once with anti-IL-23p19, anti-IL-17A, anti-IFN-γ (5 h after infection), or their isotype controls. The dose for each injection was 100 μg for anti-CD4, anti-CD25, or their controls, 150 μg for anti-Ly-6G, and 200 μg for all others. The depletion rate of CD4+, CD25+, and γδ T cells was confirmed by flow cytometry to be >99%, and >95% by ELISA analysis of corneal IL-17A production at 24 h after CaK induction in BALB/c mice treated with anti-IL-23p19 or anti-IL-17A mAbs (data not shown).