Fig 5.

(A) Representative H&E (top) and picrosirius red (bottom) images of lung sections (20X) from Cre- and Cre+ mice at 21 days after bleomycin administration. (B) Ashcroft histopathology scoring of mouse lung sections at 21 days (mean±SEM, n≥10). (C-E) BALF WBC, total protein (mean±SEM, n≥28), and cell differential (mean±SEM, n≥11) were similar between Cre- and Cre+ animals at day 21. (F) Total TGFβ measurement in BALF at day 21 by ELISA (mean±SEM, n = 20). (G) Hydroxyproline measurements in Cre- and Cre+ animals in uninjured mice and in bleomycin injured mice at day 21. Hydroxyproline measurments in uninjured mice revealed no differences in baseline lung collagen content (mean±SEM, n = 3). Both Cre- and Cre+ showed significantly higher hydroxyproline content compared to uninjured Cre- and Cre+ animals (p<0.05), but no significant difference was observed between Cre- and Cre+ bleomycin injured mice at day 21 (mean±SEM, n≥28). (H) Average percentage weight loss of Cre- and Cre+ mice following bleomycin lung injury (mean±SEM).