Figure 3.

Nox4 is induced during the fibrogenic phase of bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice, and the roles of NOX4 and CD44v6 in mediating myofibroblast phenotype of fibroblasts on day 21 after bleomycin injury are shown. A, mRNAs of NADPH oxidase components were expressed in cultures of MNLFbs and BLMFbs. B, protein expressions are shown for Nox4, Nox2, and β-tubulin in BLMFbs on days 14, 21, and 45 after treatment and on PBS-treated MNLFbs (day 0) as determined by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The data in A are representative of three independent experiments. The data in B are from three sets of BMLFbs with three independent experiments, and are expressed as the means ± S.D. (error bars) The results of densitometry obtained for Western blots of the indicated proteins are shown in the bottom panels of the experiments shown in the top panels of B. Statistical analysis was by ANOVA; *, p ≤ 0.005 versus PBS-treated 0-day group.