Effects of aeroallergen challenge on inducible and constitutive lower airway mast cells

This study are compares the transcriptomes of lower airway constitutive connective tissue mast cells (MCs), characterized by low expression of b7 integrin (B7low), and induced mucosal MCs, characterized by high b7 integrin (B7hi) at rest and in response to repeated inhalation of house dust mite extract (HDM). Lower airway b7hi and b7low MCs were flow cytometrically isolated from female 5-7 week old C57BL/6 mice following 6 challenges (2x/week for three weeks) with saline (PBS) or 3 ug house dust mite extract (HDM). Each sample is derived from pooled lung digests from three mice to reduce experimental variance. Samples were sequenced on an Illumina NextSeq 500 RNA-seq analysis of flow sorted MCs from the lower airways of mice challenged with 3 ug HDM extract (administered 2x/week for 3 weeks in 20 ul PBS) or vehicle control