Figure 1.

Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling proteins in rat lung initially increase and then decrease after monocrotaline (MCT) injection. mRNA was collected from whole lung from rats injected with MCT at the indicated time points after injection. The week 0 group was injected with saline and RNA was isolated the next day. mRNA was used in reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction to quantify BMP-2 (a), BMPR-Ia (b) and BMPR-II (c) mRNA levels. All BMP signaling molecule mRNA levels were normalized against Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA levels. Data are presented in arbitrary units (a.u.) as mean±SD; n=8/group; **P<0.01 vs. 0 week control group