Fig. 2

Effects of allergen and dsRNA administration on BALF cellular inflammation and indices of epithelial cell shedding. HDM allergen challenges alone increased total BALF cells (a) and increased eosinophils, neutrophils and lymphocytes compared to the non-allergic saline exposed group (b). At the exacerbation phase, in mice receiving additional dsRNA challenges, the total amount of cells in BALF was significantly- and dose-dependently increased by dsRNA compared to HDM/saline control (a, b). BALF neutrophils were much further enhanced by dsRNA and differential counts of eosinophils and lymphocytes were well sustained. The data are presented as mean ± SEM (n = 4–6 mice in each group). Simultaneously, epithelial cell shedding was estimated (c). BALF epithelial cell score was transiently increased after HDM challenge (c) and again tended to increase during the exacerbation phase (c). The data are presented as a box and whisker plot, shown with median and interquartile range with 95 % confidence intervals. Representative photos of the different groups from the study are shown (d), with arrows pointing out clusters of epithelial cells found in BALF (d). ^##p < 0.01; ^#p < 0.05 compared to saline control, while **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 compared to HDM/saline control