The Expression of NOX4 in Smooth Muscles of Small Airway Correlates with the Disease Severity of COPD

Figure 8

Correlation of the expression of NOX4 and TGF- in ASM of small airway. (a), (b) The expression of TGF- was determined by IHC with antibody against TGF-. (a), (b) Representative images of IHC for TGF- expression in small airways of control lung (a) and severe COPD lung (b). (c) Immunoblotting analysis determined the abundance of TGF- protein in small airways of control subjects (a, c, e) and COPD patients (b, d, f). More abundant TGF- was observed in COPD airways. (e) Comparison of the expression of TGF- in ASM and airway epithelial cells (AEC) of control lungs () and mild COPD (), moderate COPD (), and severe COPD () lungs as determined by AOD values. (e) Semiquantitative analysis of the abundance of proteins of immunoblots in (c) by a densitometric analysis; the result showed the fold changes of TGF- in COPD lungs over non-COPD lungs. (f) Correlation between the expression of NOX4 and TGF- in ASM of small airway (; ). GAPDH was used as internal control for loading of samples in (c). Statistical analysis was performed by one-way ANOVA and -test for comparison between groups using the GraphPad Prism version 5 software. Data was presented as the mean ± SD. Spearman’s correlation coefficient and values are as indicated. Compared to the controls, in ASM; and in AEC. Bars in (a) and (b): 100 μm; brackets in (a) and (b) represented the ASM layers. Compared to controls, for α-SMA.

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