Fig. 1.

Sepsis induced pericytes loss and pulmonary vascular permeability. (A) Representative images of FITC-BSA leakage in the lung tissues. (Blue, DAPI; green, FITC-BSA. Bar = 50 μm) (B) Representative images of Evens-Blue leakage in the lung tissues. (n = 6/group) (C) Representative TEM images of tight junctions in pulmonary vessels following sepsis (green arrow indicate the tight junction. Bar = 1 μm) (D) Body temperature, white blood cells count and heart rate of septic patients and healthy controls (HC). (septic patients n = 8, HC n = 8) (E) Flow cytometry analyses of CD45⁻CD140b⁺ cells (pericytes) in the serum of septic patients and healthy controls. (septic patients n = 8, HC n = 8) (F) Laser confocal microscopy analysis of the pulmonary networks. (NG2, green, pericyte marker; CD31, red, endothelial cell marker. Bar = 50 μm) (G) Western blotting analysis of pericyte marker (PDGFR-β and NG2) in the lung tissues. (n = 3/group)

Data were shown as mean ± SD. ∗p < 0.05, ∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001. Statistical significance was determined by two-sided Student's-test as appropriate. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)