er calculations. Calculations of tip lysis and Syto9 vs propidium iodide staining. The frequency of lysed and unlysed tips was calculated from at least 50 microcolonies per condition. Hyphal tips,4 mm Methods Culture of A. fumigatus and A. terreus and exposure to drugs on INK1117 porous aluminium oxide All strains of Aspergillus species used in this study were clinical isolates or reference strains, as detailed in Strains. in length were not included in this analysis. Cells including hyphal tips were scored as Syto9 if the staining pattern was more intense than the competitor dye propidium iodide. Cells for which the converse was true were scored as propidium iodide staining. Statistics and calculation of variance. Statistical operations used the Vassar Statistics 19151731” web server. Microcolony heterogeneity was assessed using log10 transformations of variance in microcolony area and diameter. Microcolony Analysis of Aspergillus Acknowledgments Thanks to Adriaan van Aelst and Tiny Franssen-Verheijen for assistance with electron microscopy and Jacques Meis for strains. Anidulafungin was contributed by Pfizer, NL. As one of the major cell types comprising alveolar epithelial tissue, the alveolar type II epithelial cells play an important role in maintaining alveolar integrity by forming the key alveolar barrier, repairing damaged type I cells, and being the source of alveolar surfactant. Increasing studies also suggest a critical role for alveolar type II epithelial cells in regulating local lung inflammatory response. For example, our previous study and others have suggested that alveolar type II epithelial cells may play special 
roles in counteracting microbes by releasing cytokines and chemokines that recruit both dendritic cells and alveolar macrophages to the site of infection. However, the potential role of alveolar type II epithelial cells in lung innate immunity and the molecular mechanisms whereby the expressions of inflammatory mediators are regulated in alveolar type II epithelial cells remain largely unknown. IL-1b is one of the most biologically active cytokines in edema fluid and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients at an early stage of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Moreover, IL-1b has been shown to affect the function of the lung epithelial barrier. IL-1b is known to modulate the activity of many transcription factors including NF-kB and C/EBPs. However, the role of C/EBPs in IL-1b-mediated inflammatory responses in alveolar type II epithelial cells remains unknown. The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of C/EBPc in IL-1bstimulated IL-6 production from alveolar type II epithelial cells. C/EBPa, -b, -d, -e, -c, and -f comprise a family of basic regionleucine zipper transcription factors that dimerize through a leucine zipper and bind to DNA through an adjacent basic region. All C/EBP members can form homo- and hetero-dimers with other family members. C/EBPs can activate transcription from promoters that contain a consensus binding site: 59-TNNGNAA-39. Among them, C/EBPb and -d appear to be effectors in the induction of genes responsive to LPS, IL-1b or IL-6 stimulation, and have been implicated in the regulation of inflammatory mediators as well as other gene products associated with the activation of macrophages 18003836” and the acute phase inflammatory response . C/EBPc is a ubiquitously expressed member of the C/EBP family of transcription factors that has been shown to be an inhibitor of C/EBP transcriptional