Fig. 5.

Rat lung slice luminal area measurements. A) Representative images of video recorded rat lung slices. Images (1)–(4) correlate to graphically represented luminal area tracing demarcated by arrows ()–(4) in panel B. Photograph (1) is a rat bronchiole without treatment. Photograph (2) is the same rat bronchiole treated with 100 nM ACh. Photograph (3) is the same rat bronchiole after a buffer wash and treated with 50 mM KCl. Photograph (4) is the same rat bronchiole after a buffer wash and treated with 10 mM TEA. B) Left: A representative tracing of bronchiolar luminal area extracted from video recorded images expressed as a percent of baseline luminal area (denoted by (1)). Right: Airway luminal area was measured as a percentage of baseline luminal areas at points (2), (3) and (4). (n=5 for all groups). Mean intraluminal area values of TEA was not significantly different between ACh and KCl groups (n=5, P>0.05). C) Left: A representative tracing of bronchiolar luminal area measurements showing niflumic acid (NFA) direct relaxation of TEA contraction. Right: Airway luminal area as a percentage of baseline luminal area at points before and after niflumic acid were significantly different (n=4, *P<0.01).