FIG. 1.

Decrease in lymphatic vessels after a single dose of radiation. One week after a single dose (14 Gy) of radiation, radiated lungs (B) show a marked decrease in immunoreactivity with anti-LYVE-1 antibodies (brown areas indicated by black arrows) compared to control nonradiated lungs (A). At 16 weeks post-radiation, the decrease in immunoreactivity with anti-LYVE-1 antibodies persisted as seen in lung tissue sections from nonradiated (C) and radiated animals (D). Areas of fibrosis (D, enclosed in blue dotted lines) observed 16 weeks after radiation were completely devoid of lymphatic vessels. (Scale bar: 100 μm). Images of the entire lung section were obtained. ImageJ software was used to measure the density, area, and perimeter of lymphatic vessels in tissue sections from radiated and control animals at the indicated time points (n=3 per group per time point). A statistically significant decrease in lymphatic vessel density (E), perimeter (F), and area (G) was observed; *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001, compared to time-matched controls by Student t test. A color version of this figure is available in the online article at www.liebertpub.com/lrb.