Figure 1.

CCSP⁺ BMC extend survival after ablation of lung CCSP⁺ cells. (a) Female CCtk mice were treated with ganciclovir (GCV) 4.5 mg/day for 10 days, followed by transtracheal administration of sorted CCSP⁺ or CCSP⁻ BMC from male wild-type mice. Lung analysis was performed 7 days after cell delivery. (b) Administration of CCSP⁺ BMC increased survival after ganciclovir treatment, whereas none of the mice treated with CCSP⁻ BMC survived 10 days (*P = 0.001). (c) Quantitative RT-PCR for the Sry gene showed that mice treated with CCSP⁺ BMC had 8.9 times more male cells in the lung compared with mice treated with CCSP⁻ BMC (*P < 0.001), whereas no amplification of male DNA was detected (ND) in lungs from mice treated with saline. (d) Lung sections from mice treated with CCSP⁻ BMC showed areas with low density of donor cells identified by CMTMR⁺ signal (red cytoplasm), whereas (e) mice treated with CCSP⁺ BMC showed areas with high density of donor cells. Insets show areas with donor cells under high-power magnification. Scale bars represents 100 µm. Data shown are means ± SEM. n = 8 mice per group. BMC, bone marrow cells; CCSP, Clara cell secretory protein.