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. 2012 Aug 28;7(8):e43420. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0043420

Table 1. Reduced allergic lung inflammation in IL-10 KO mice.

Group Inflammation index Mucus index
N 0.62±0.14 0.00±0.00
T 0.45±0.05 0.14±0.00
O 1.35±0.24* 1.08±0.27**
TO 0.98±0.19 0.54±0.19

Semiquantitative analysis of histopathological changes. After lavage, lungs were instilled and fixed with 10% buffered formalin. Following paraffin embedding, sections for microscopy were stained with H&E and PAS. An index of pathologic changes in H&E slides was obtained by scoring the inflammatory infiltrate around the airways and vessels for greatest severity (0, normal; 1, <4 cells diameter thick; 2, 4–10 cells diameter thick; 3, >10 cells diameter thick) and overall extent (0, normal; 1, <25% of sample; 2, 26–50%; 3, 51–75%; 4, >75%). The Index was calculated by multiplying severity by extent. An histological goblet cell score was obtained in Periodic acid-Schiff (PAS)-stained lung sections by examining 10 to 20 consecutive airways from all groups of mice at 40x magnification and categorized according to the abundance of PAS-positive goblet (0, <5% goblet cells; 1, 5–25%; 2, 26–50%; 3, 51–75%; 4, >75%). The Index was calculated by dividing the sum of the airway scores from each lung by the number of airways examined for the histological goblet cell score. MEAN±ES;

*

p<0.05 O vs N and T groups;

**

p<0.001 O vs all other groups; ANOVA with Bonferroni a posteriori.