Figure 5.

Therapeutic effects of AQX‐1125 on bleomycin‐induced parameters of lung fibrosis. Mice were treated with either saline vehicle (sal, p.o., daily), AQX‐1125 (3, 10 or 30 mg·kg⁻¹·d⁻¹, p.o.) or pirfenidone (pirf, 90 mg·kg⁻¹·d⁻¹, p.o.) starting on Day 13 after receiving a single intratracheal administration of bleomycin (BLM). The sham‐treated group received intratracheal saline. Lung tissue collected at Day 28 was sectioned and stained with antibodies to either TGF‐β (A) or collagen‐1 (B), and the relative positive immunoreactive areas for TGF‐β (C) and collagen‐1 (D) were quantified by densitometry. Soluble collagen was quantified using the Sircol assay (E), and the hydroxyproline content (F) was assessed. *P < 0.05, significantly different from vehicle. Results are given as mean ± SEM from n = 11–29 (animals surviving to Day 28 in each of the bleomycin‐treated groups) or n = 10 (sham‐treated group).