FIGURE 9.

TET treatment protects against pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin. Mice, were treated prophylactically with either vehicle (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, i. p, daily) or TET (20 mg kg⁻¹·d⁻¹, i.p.) starting on Day 1 after receiving a single intratracheal administration of BLM. The control group received intratracheal PBS. (A) Schematic diagram of the time course of TET treatment in a mouse model of BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis. (B) Changes in body weight were presented relative to the initial weight. (C-F) The pulmonary function parameters were measured by pulmonary function test. (G) Lung tissue was sectioned at day 21 and performed HE staining. Scale bar of top images: 100 μm, below images: 40 μm. (H) Lung tissues were stain with Masson trichrome staining. Scale bars: 40 μm. (I) Ashcroft scores were analyzed. (J) Hydroxyproline (HYP) expression of each group by hydroxyproline assay. (K) The protein expression of α-SMA (left images) and fibronectin (right images) in lung sample were examined by immunohistochemical staining. Scale bar of top images: 100 μm. Scale bar of below images: 40 μm. (L-M) Lung tissues were treated as described in (A) and subjected to immunoblots of fibrosis and autophagy-associated proteins(L) and densitometric analysis was obtained (M). The data were presented as the means ± SEM (n ≥ 5). Two-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test was used for statistical analysis. *p < 0.05.