FIGURE 1.

DHQ attenuated SiO₂-induced pulmonary fibrosis in C57/BL6 mice One week after 0.2 g/kg SiO₂ treatment, mice were orally administered with two doses of DHQ-L (10 mg/kg) and DHQ-H (50 mg/kg) once a day for 14 days. (A) The changes of body weight. (B) The changes of LW/BW ratio. (C) The HYP contents in lung tissues were determined. (D) Representative images ( × 200) of HE-stained and Masson-stained sections of mouse lung were shown. Bar = 100 μM. (E), (F) The inflammation and fibrosis score numbers of 0–3, representing the grades of –, +, ++, and +++, were determined by experienced pathologists blindly. (G) The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in serum and lung homogenate were measured by ELISA. (H) The protein levels of α-SMA, collagen I and fibronectin in lung tissues were measured by western blotting. Data are shown as mean ± SD, All experiments were repeated three times. #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01 vs. the control group; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 vs. the SiO₂ group.