Figure 5.

IM‐1918 attenuates the bleomycin‐induced fibrotic process. Lungs from C57BL/6 mice were harvested on day 14 after intratracheal administration of bleomycin (BLM, 100 mg/kg). IM‐1918 (2 mg/kg) or vehicle (0.1% DMSO, control) was intraperitoneally injected e.o.d starting 24 h after BLM treatment. A, Lung sections stained with haematoxylin and eosin for morphological evaluation (top), Masson's Trichrome (middle) to detect collagen deposition and immunohistochemical detection of α‐SMA (bottom). Representative images are shown. Magnification ×100. Scale bar = 100 μm. B, C, Expression of fibrotic markers or related signalling molecules in lung tissues of experimental mice was analysed by Western blotting for the indicated proteins. Band intensities corresponding to the indicated proteins were quantified by densitometry using ImageJ software, normalized to β‐actin or the total form of each protein, and expressed as the fold‐change compared to each control. Data were considered significant at *P < .05, **P < .01, ***P < .001 vs control; ^† P < .05, ^†† P < .01, ^††† P < .001 vs BLM