Fig. 1

Airway and vascular cell infiltrates are increased in the airways when estrogen is given at steady-state levels. A An overview our experimental protocol is shown where female BALB/c mice were ovarectomized at 3 weeks of age (OVX) and implanted with subcutaneous estrogen (17β-E2, 0.1 mg) or placebo pellets. Sham-operated females (F-INTACT) were included as controls. OVA-treated animals were sensitized to chicken egg albumin by intraperitoneal injections with OVA and aluminum hydroxide (100 µL). Saline treated animals were included as controls. B–D Levels of estrogen were determined by ELISA in lung tissue, BAL and serum. One-way ANOVA were used to determine statistical differences followed by Tukey’s post-test to determine between groups differences. Statistical significance was assigned when p-value was less than 0.05; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001