Fig. 5: Cigarette smoke exposure attenuates the transcriptional upregulation of VCAM-1 in the nasal mucosa following immunization.

Mice were exposed to room air (RA) or cigarette smoke (CS) for 2 or 8 weeks. Serum, NM homogenates and lung homogenates were assessed for a CCL28 and b VCAM-1 expression by ELISA. Data represent n = 5–7 mice per group from two independent experiments. c Mice were exposed to room air or cigarette smoke for 1 week and intranasally immunized with LPS/OVA as described in Fig. 1a. At 3dpb, nasal homogenates were assessed for CCL28 and VCAM-1 expression by ELISA. Data represent n = 5 mice per group. d Mice were exposed to room air or cigarette smoke for 2 weeks and intranasally administered 10 μg of LPS alone. Vcam1 gene expression was quantified in nasal lysates 1 h post-administration. Data in each group are normalized to the mean of the RA-PBS group. Data represent n = 5 mice per group. e, f Mice were treated as in (c), at which point (e) the proportion of α4⁺β1⁺ integrin OVA-IgA ASCs and (f) the MFI of each integrin was quantified. Data represent n = 5 mice per group. A.U. arbitrary units. a, b, e, f Student’s unpaired t-tests, c, d two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc test. Mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05.