Figure 2.

βgal and immunofluorescent staining in lung tissues of α-SMA-Cre/R26R mice. In βgal stained sections (a, b, c, d, g), intrapulmonary veins were homogeneously stained (a, b) and pulmonary arteries were heterogeneously stained (a). In the main bronchus of pulmonary hilum, unstained ciliated epithelia were surrounded by a βgal stained muscular layer (a, arrowhead), βgal staining was not detected in terminal bronchioles, although small veins were positively stained (c). The thin layer of βgal staining was observed in the sub-epithelial areas of small and medium bronchi, respectively (arrowheads in b, d, g). The βgal stained areas of bronchus (d, g) paralleled the staining pattern for α-SMA (TRITC-labeled, arrowheads in e, h) and SM-MHC (FITC-labeled, arrowheads in f, i) (a-c, 100×, d-i, 400× magnification).