All animals were relatively recovered by 24 h. Intratracheal instillation of NH<sub>3</sub> (1%) caused early symptoms of ALI including airway hyperresponsiveness, neutrophilic lung inflammation and altered levels of coagulation factors (increased fibrinogen and PAI-1) and early biomarkers of ALI (IL-18, MMP-9, TGFβ) which was followed by increased deposition of newly produced collagen 14 days later.
Expansion of CD4(+) CD25(+) and CD25(-) T-Bet, GATA-3, Foxp3 and RORγt cells in allergic inflammation, local lung distribution and chemokine gene expression.
Caspase-1 is the key protease for activation of IL-18 precursor into the bioactive form, and caspase-1 KO mice also displayed similar bacterial clearance and body weight loss to that in WT mice at early stages of MoPn infection.