Fig. 4

Expression of the H9N2 M gene in the lungs of infected mice after treatment with calcitriol. Mice were inoculated intranasally with 100 μL of allantoic fluid containing influenza A/mallard/Jiangxi/39/2011 (H9N2; 1 × 106 50% egg infection dose). Lung tissues were harvested on the indicated days post-infection. The relative quantification (RQ) values for the H9N2 M gene, are expressed as fold-change. RQ values were obtained using the 2-ΔΔCt method normalizing to the RNA expression levels of the β-actin gene. The average threshold cycle (ΔCt) values of the untreated infected group were used for calibration