Figure 6

CD4+ T cell depletion inhibits clearance of P. murina from the lungs of SP-A deficient (KO) mice. KO mice infected with P. murina by intratracheal inoculation or unexposed KO mice were treated with a CD4 depleting antibody for four weeks. The animals were sacrificed and P. murina infection was evaluated by microscopic enumeration of cyst forms or by quantitation of the P. murina large mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene by qPCR. The cyst form data are expressed as log₁₀ cyst forms per lung. The level of sensitivity in this assay is 4.4 log₁₀ cyst forms per lung. The qPCR data are the mean ± the SEM and are expressed as P. murina nuclei per reaction. *p < 0.05 as determined by t test.