Skip to main content
. 2021 Jun 8;12:675907. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.675907

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 4

Microcystin-RR (MC-RR) shows a better effect on reducing the expression levels of fibrotic markers than Microcystin-LR (MC-LR). Rats were treated as explained in Figure 3. (A) Representative immunohistochemical staining of vimentin in rat lung tissue sections. Scale bar: 100 μm. Black arrows indicate vimentin-positive cells. (B) The expression of vimentin was quantified by integrated optical density (IOD) using Image-Pro Plus 6.0 software. (C) Representative immunohistochemical staining of collagen 1α1 in rat lung tissues. Scale bar: 100 μm. Black arrows indicate collagen 1α1-positive cells. (D) Quantification of collagen 1α1 was performed by IOD. (E–G) The mRNA was purified from pulmonary tissues and examined for the expression of fibrotic markers, including fibronectin, α-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). (H,I) Protein levels in rat lung tissues were measured by western blot and quantified. Data are presented as mean ± SD. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 determined by one-way ANOVA with S-N-K post-hoc analysis. Each group had five rats.