Figure 1.

Schematic representation of the animal experimental protocol. Mice were exposed to normoxia (NOR) or chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) for 2 weeks, and then administered an intratracheal instillation of bleomycin (BLE) or saline on day 14. After BLE instillation, the mice were exposed to CIH or NOR for an additional 4 weeks. Pirfenidone (PF) was administered on day 5 after the BLE challenge by oral gavage (400 mg/kg), once daily, until the mice were sacrificed. IH: intermittent hypoxia.