Enhanced Tissue Damage Following H1N1 Infection in Human Precision-Cut Lung Slices (PCLS)

Annual seasonal epidemics with Influenza A virus (IAV) strains result in 3-5 million severe cases in children and elderly individuals. Therefore, in this study the immune response of lower respiratory tract tissue to H1N1 (California/04/2009) pandemic strain was compared to seasonal H3N2 (Perth/16/2009) in viable human precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) ex vivo. PCLS were inoculated with 104-106 ffu/mL for 1 h and incubated 48 h post infection. Local immune response was measured with MSD, tissue damage observed by LDH release and