Fig. 2: Bilirubin impairs ILC2 function in response to IL-33 challenge.

a–d Equal number of lung ILC2s (3 × 10⁴) sorted from IL-33 challenged WT mice were intravenously injected into NCG mice, followed by intranasal administration with IL-33 (n = 6 per group) or PBS (n = 4 per group) in the presence or absence of UCB (25 mg/kg) treatment for 3 d. a The numbers of lung ILC2s in NCG recipients were evaluated by flow cytometry. b The frequencies and absolute numbers of eosinophils in BAL were evaluated by flow cytometry. c The amounts of IL-5 and IL-13 in BAL were measured by ELISA. d Representative H&E staining of lung sections (bars, 100 μm) and the inflammation was determined by semi-quantitative scoring. e Lung ILC2s from mice were cultured for 3 days with IL-2, IL-7 and IL-33 with increasing concentration of UCB, the amounts of effector cytokines in the supernatants were measured by ELISA. Cells cultured in medium containing IL-2 and IL-7 were used as control. Data are representative of three independent experiments, mean ± SEMs were shown. Unpaired Student’s t test (a–c) or one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-test (e) were used. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Numbers within flow plots indicate the percentages of cells gated.