Bronchoalveolar lavage analysis
Euthanized mice were tracheotomised for bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) which was used to examine inflammatory cell infiltrate into the lungs following infection. Briefly, BAL fluid was collected by slowly infusing and withdrawing a 1 ml aliquot of 0.9% saline from the lung three times. Cell viability was determined by trypan blue staining and differential cell counts were assessed with Leishman’s stain (Sigma-Aldrich, St Louis, Missouri, USA).