Figure 3.

Rapamycin prevents TGF-α–dependent pulmonary fibrosis. CCSP/TGF-α mice were administered 7 weeks of Dox, and treated with either rapamycin (4 mg/kg once daily 6 d/wk) or vehicle. Controls were littermate single transgene CCSP/- mice administered Dox and treated with rapamycin. The treatment protocol is represented schematically in A. (B) Rapamycin prevented TGF-α–induced decreases in progressive body weight loss. Sections of lungs were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. (C) CCSP/TGF-α mice administered rapamycin at the initiation of Dox caused a marked attenuation of pulmonary fibrosis compared with CCSP/TGF-α vehicle-treated mice. (D) Rapamycin prevented TGF-α–induced increases in total lung collagen. Photomicrographs shown are representative of lungs from seven mice in each group. All photomicrographs are taken at the same magnification, and bar is 200 μm. *P < 0.05 compared with CCSP/- control and CCSP/TGF-α vehicle-treated mice.