Journal: BMC Pulmonary Medicine
Article Title: Optimization of intranasal bleomycin dose for effective pulmonary fibrosis induction in mice with minimal animal distress
doi: 10.1186/s12890-025-04001-4
Figure Lengend Snippet: Histopathological characterization in BLM-treated animals (IN—3 mg/kg). A Histopathological evaluation by H&E staining (upper panel), Sirius Red staining (middle panel), and Masson’s trichrome (lower panel) of lungs of vehicle mice (CTR) or treated with BLM after a single IN administration. Representative images of lung sections of animals sacrificed at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after the treatment are reported. Scale bar = 500 µm (upper panel) – 100 µm (lower panels). B IHC for Iba1 (left panel), CD68 (green—middle panel), and α-SMA staining (right panel) of lungs of CTR or treated with BLM. Representative images of lung sections of animals sacrificed at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after the treatment are reported. Scale bar = 100 µm. The boxed areas (Iba1 black, CD68 red, α-SMA green) in CTR and day 7 sections are shown at higher magnification in the right panel, scale bar = 50 µm C ) Histopathological quantification of Sirius Red staining in lung section (left graph) and representation of Ashcroft scale grade (right graph) obtained by Masson’s trichrome analysis of lungs of CTR or treated with BLM. Data are reported as mean ± SE. The data were analyzed by Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s test. Significant differences compared to the CTR are reported, * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001. D ) mRNA expression of TNF-α, COL 1a1, and FN1 was evaluated by RT-qPCR in the lungs of mice ( n = 3 per group) treated with BLM and sacrificed at different time points. Genes were normalized on β-actin, and the 2 −ΔΔCt method was employed for relative quantification on an external calibrator. Data are reported as mean ± SE and were analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Dunn’s test. Significant differences compared to the CTR are reported, * p ≤ 0.05, ** p ≤ 0.01. E) SMAD 2/3 and pSMAD 2 expression in the lungs from CTR mouse at days 7, 14, 21, and 28 of treatment obtained with WB
Article Snippet: For subcellular localization, primary rat anti-CD68 monoclonal antibody (1:200, Serotec, Kidlington, UK) + Triton X-100 0.1% + NGS 3% in 1X PBS overnight at 4 °C was used.
Techniques: Staining, Expressing, Quantitative RT-PCR, Quantitative Proteomics