Table 1.

Morphometric parameters at 24 h

	Normal Alveoli (%)	Collapsed Alveoli (%)	Neut† (%)	MN‡ (%)
Naïve	95.40 ± 0.52	4.61 ± 0.52	1.63 ± 0.21	0.73 ± 0.08
Sham	93.57 ± 0.72	5.10 ± 0.50	1.12 ± 0.15	0.77 ± 0.19
CLP sal	68.69 ± 4.00###***	28.97 ± 3.77###***	4.81 ± 0.99##***	2.40 ± 0.27###***
CLP met	73.47 ± 1.97###***	24.48 ± 1.37###***	4.23 ± 0.26#**	2.63 ± 0.35###***
CLP dex	86.25 ± 4.30++$	12.68 ± 4.11++$	1.28 ± 0.42++$$	1.39 ± 0.23$

Normal alveoli, collapsed alveoli, neutrophils^† and mononuclear^‡ cells percentage. Values are mean ± SEM. All values were computed in 10 random, non-coincident fields per rat.

^#P < 0.05

^##P < 0.01 and

^###P < 0.001 compared to Naïve group

^**P < 0.01 and

^***P < 0.001 compared to Sham group

⁺⁺P < 0.01 compared to CLP sal group

^$P < 0.05 and

^$$P < 0.01 compared to CLP met group; N = 5.