Cellular content of the peritoneal exudate harvested from TG5 and FVB mice before and after thioglycolate injection.

Photomicrographs of cytospin preparations were made from representative peritoneal lavage samples of IL-9 transgenic (TG5) and wild-type (FVB) mice. Following intraperitoneal injection with thioglycolate, mice were killed at different time points and their peritoneal lavage cellular content was analyzed. At 0 hour time point (before injection) both groups showed macrophages and scattered mast cells (left panels). In addition to these in TG5 mice a few eos are also seen in the peritoneal lavage fluid (upper left panel). Six hours after injection the picture is dominated by neutrophils in FVB and TG5 mice to a similar extent (middle panels). At 72 hours the neutrophils and eos disappeared and were replaced mainly by clustered macrophages in the peritoneal lavage of FVB mice (lower right panel). There was still a significant eosinophilia seen in TG5 mice (upper right panel). Cytospins were prepared and stained with Diff-Quik as described (original magnification × 1000).