Environmental Conditioning and Aerosol Infection of Mice

Abstract

Influenza infection models in mice are widely used to study flu-mediated immune responses and pathology. However, most laboratory mice are housed at 20 °C and 50% relative humidity (RH). To better recapitulate influenza epidemics and immune responses during winter seasons, mice were housed at 20 °C under different humidity conditions, 10-20% or 50% RH. Here, we describe a protocol for using aerosolized droplets to infect mice with influenza under different environmental conditions. Using this method enables influenza infection studies performed under more physiologically relevant conditions which better mimics human viral exposure.