Fig. 4

Pulmonary lumican expression was associated with inflammatory and profibrotic responses in an ALI mouse model. (A) Mice were intratracheally administered LPS (5 mg/kg) or saline as vehicle control. Lung tissue was collected 24 h after LPS challenge. Representative lung sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin which labels cytoplasm and extracellular matrix in pink and nuclei in blue, Masson’s trichrome stain which labels collagen in blue, fibrin in red and cardiomyocytes in orange, and anti-lumican antibody which labels lumican in brown. Scale bars, 50 μm. (B) BALF lumican level was measured on days 1, 3, and 7 after LPS challenge. BALF lumican level was positively correlated with BALF levels of TNF-α (C), fibronectin (D), and COL3A1 (E). Each group consisted of a total of 6 mice. Values are expressed as the mean and standard deviation. The significance of between-group differences was examined using two-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's multiple comparisons test to analyse the means of multiple samples. *p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Correlations were investigated using Pearson’s correlation analysis (r indicates the correlation coefficient). BALF bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, COL3A1, alpha-1 type III collagen, LPS lipopolysaccharides, TNF-α tumour necrosis factor-alpha