Figure 4.

CAT morphological analysis. (A) Macroscopic image of a representative normal and cystic fibrosis connective airway tissue (NA-CAT and CF-CAT); (B) Second harmonic generation (SHG) images of collagen fibers in gray and immunofluorescence showing the nuclei of the cells in blue marked by DAPI and in green the signal of Collagen Type I/Hyaluronic Acid and Periostin; scale bar 100 µm; (C) Diagram of the quantity of collagen (µm²) type I per cell (nuclei) NA-CAT (blue) and CF-CAT (red); (D) Diagram of the quantity of Hyaluronic Acid (µm²) type I per cell (nuclei) NA-CAT(blue) and CF-CAT (red); (E) Diagram of the quantity of Periostin (µm²) type I per cell (nuclei) NA-CAT(blue) and CF-CAT(red); (F) Diagram of the effective elastic modulus of the NA-CAT(blue) and CF-CAT(red). In all the diagrams data are showed as Mean ± Standard Deviation *p value <0.05.