Expression data of influenza A infected human macrophages. Homo sapiens

Human disease caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 can lead to a rapidly progressive viral pneumonia leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome. There is increasing evidence suggests a role for virus-induced cytokine dysregulation in contributing to the pathogenesis of human H5N1 disease. The key target cells for the virus in the lung are the alveolar epithelium and alveolar macrophages, and previous data has shown that compared to seasonal human influenza viruses, equivalent infecting doses of H5N1 viruses markedly up-regulate pro-inflammatory cytokines in both primary cell types in vitro. The dysregulation of H5N1-induced host responses is therefore important for understanding the viral pathogenesis. We used microarrays to analyze and compare the gene expression profiles in primary human macrophages after influenza A virus infection. Overall design: Peripheral-blood leucocytes were separated from buffy coats of three healthy blood donors and cells were differentiated for 14 days before use. Differentiated macrophages were infected with H1N1 and H5N1 at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of two. Total RNA was extracted from cells after 1, 3, and 6h post-infection, and gene expression profiling was performed using an Affymetrix Human Gene 1.0 ST microarray platform.