Fig. 3: The inhibitory effects of Aspergillus melanin extended to other pro-inflammatory stimuli.
From: Fungal melanin suppresses airway epithelial chemokine secretion through blockade of calcium fluxing
a H292 epithelium infected with media alone (HBSS; negative control), P. aeruginosa PAO1 strain (PSA) in the absence and presence of increasing A. fumigatus melanin ghosts (MG; 0.2x = 2 × 106/cm2; 1x = 1 × 107/cm2; 5x = 5 × 107/cm2) or MG alone for 6 h. Apical CXCL8 secretion in the supernatant was measured by ELISA. n = 3 from three replicates; ***p < 0.0001. See also Figure S3. b Apical CXCL8 secretion was measured by ELISA following a 6 h stimulation of H292 cells with HBSS, PSA ± MG, TNFα (100 ng/mL) ± MG, or Aspergillus MG alone (5 × 107/cm2). n = 3 from three replicates; *p = 0.0007, **p = 0.0005. c Neutrophil migration across H292 epithelium in response to PSA alone or in the presence of MG or MG alone (5 × 107/cm2) was measured by apical MPO assay. Data represents the number of neutrophils as determined by the standard curve. n = 6 from three replicates; ***p < 0.0001 compared to PSA. d 6–12-week-old C57BL/6 mice were infected via oropharyngeal aspiration with PSA (5.85 × 105) with or without Aspergillus MG (5.85 × 106) for 4 h. The number of neutrophils in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was measured by flow cytometry. n = 5 for HBSS and n = 6 for PSA, PSA + MG, and MG alone for two experiments; ***p < 0.0001 compared to PSA. Data are represented as mean ± SEM. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
