Fig. 3.
Emphysematous changes and airway remodeling in elastase/LPS-treated mice. Lungs of PBS, elastase, or elastase/LPS-treated mice were inflated to an identical pressure, processed for paraffin embedding, and stained with H&E. A: lungs from PBS- (A) or LPS-treated (B) mice showed normal alveolar morphology. Elastase- (C) or elastase/LPS-treated (D) mice showed mild and moderate emphysema (*), respectively. Images are representative of 4–6 independent experiments. E: the diameter of the air spaces was measured in at least 10 random fields per slide and averaged to determine alveolar chord length. Lungs of elastase- and elastase/LPS-treated mice showed increased mean chord length compared with PBS- or LPS-treated mice. F: airway wall thickness was increased in elastase/LPS-treated mice compared with PBS-, elastase-, or LPS-treated mice. N = 4–6, means ± SD, *different from PBS group, P ≤ 0.05; †different from all other groups, P ≤ 0.05, 1-way ANOVA.