FIGURE 6.

Aging associated with the patchy distribution of aconitase 1-positive E-cadherin-negative cells in remodeled alveoli. (A) Western blot analysis was performed using whole tissue lysates prepared from lungs of wild-type mice at different ages [7-9-weeks-old (n = 3), 16-mth-old (n = 5) and 22-mth-old (n = 5)]. Equal amounts of protein (7.5 μg) were loaded per lane. (B–E): Expression of ACO1, E-cadherin, pro-SPC (the sum of #1 and #2 in Figure 6A), and claudin-10 was normalized to β-actin and the results (means ± SE) are shown in bar graphs (F–M) Paraffin-embedded lung sections from 22-mth-old wild-type mice were subjected to i) H&E-staining (J) or ii) immunohistochemical double labeling for E-cad and ACO1 (F-I and K-M). Single-channel images (K,L) and multi-channel merged images (F-I,M) are shown. The lung section the photomicrographs of (K-M) are imaged from is adjacent to (J) (L, M) are magnified views of the boxed region in (K) *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01. a p-value of 0.05 or lower was considered to be statistically significant. Data from one representative experiment of two or more independent experiments are shown.