Fig. 5.

Effect of HO-1 on β-catenin cellular localization and activity. In (A) active β-catenin expressed as a ratio to the total in lung homogenates of O₂/air recovered mice. Grey bars: WT, open bars: KO. Values are the mean±S.E. of 3 in each group. *: p<0.05 vs air; †: p<0.05 vs WT O₂. (B) Representative immunohistochemical staining of β-catenin alone (Upper panel) or co-staining with hnRNPK (Lower panel) of WT and KO lungs is shown at 40x magnification. White arrows: cellular distributions of β-catenin; yellow arrows: co-localization of β-catenin (red) and hnRNPK (green) signals in the nucleus; yellow arrowheads: hnRNPK staining in the nucleus without β-catenin co-localization. In (C) representative lung slices from WT and transgenic mice over-expressing the nuclear form of HO-1 driven by an SP-C promoter were co-stained for HA for HO-1 transgene (red), hnRNPK (green) and DAPI (blue). Yellow arrows: co-localization of the two signals in the WT (overall distribution) and in the transgenic mice (predominantly in the nucleus) (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.).