Figure 2.

Cathepsin K transgenic mice exhibit decreased collagen deposition in their lungs in response to bleomycin compared to wild-type mice. Cathepsin K transgenic mice (black bars) and wild-type mice (white bars) were administered either saline or bleomycin for 1, 2, 3, and 4 weeks. Subsequently, mice were euthanized and lungs were processed for quantitative assessment of collagen content by hydroxyproline assay, as described in Materials and Methods. The data are shown as mean ± SD of at least n = 10 mice per group and time point. * indicates p < 0.05 compared to wild-type mice. + indicates significant increase (p < 0.05) compared to mock-treated wild-type mice.