Ghrelin Protects Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury Rats against Pulmonary Vascular Dysfunction by Inhibiting Inflammation

Figure 2

Ghrelin pretreatment reduced the number of PCNA⁺ cells but had no effect on the intima-media arterial wall thickness of LPS-induced ALI rats. (a) Representative images of PCNA⁺ smooth muscle cells of the four groups at 200x magnification and the corresponding histograms. The nuclei of PCNA⁺ cells were stained brown, while those of PCNA⁻ cells appeared blue. (b) Representative images of an anti-α-smooth muscle actin- (α-SMA-) stained pulmonary artery. The intima-media arterial wall thickness of the lungs of six different rats from each of the four groups was calculated using the following formula: % of wall thickness = (intima-media thickness/external diameter) × 100. Data are presented as the mean ± SD (n = 6).

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