Fig. 3.

Presence of Nuclear Material Following De-cellularization (A) CP de-cellularization was most effective at removing nucleic acids. The MP protocol was also effective, while CF de-cellularization was very inefficient. Representative images are shown from triplicate lungs de-cellularized using each method (20× Magnification). (B) Quantification of TOPRO-3 signal using Image J and analyzed via one-tailed t-test demonstrates the effectiveness and reproducibility of CP de-cellularization on removing nucleic acids (*P ≤ 0.05 compared to normal lung, **P ≤ 0.005 compared to CF lung). Means + St Dev. from three representative lungs for each method are shown.