Figure 4.

GSH supplementation inhibits the LPS-induced endothelial cell apoptosis in the mouse lung. Lung tissue sections from vehicle, LPS, LPS + GSH-EE, and GSH-EE treated mice were analyzed for the presence of apoptotic nuclei using the DeadEnd Fluorometric TUNEL System. The DNA breaks were labeled with fluorescein-12-dUTP (TUNEL; green), and the nuclei were stained using propidium iodide (PI; red). Vascular endothelial cells were labeled with anti-Von Willebrand Factor (VWF; blue) (A). The quantification of the TUNEL positive endothelial nuclei and total endothelial nuclei was processed by Image-Pro software and presented as a percentage. LPS treatment caused a significant increase in endothelial apoptosis and this was attenuated by GSH-EE pre-treatment (B). Values are mean ± SEM; n = 4/group. *P < 0.05 vs. vehicle; ^†P < 0.05 vs. LPS.