Noninvasive In Vivo Quantification of Neutrophil Elastase Activity in Acute Experimental Mouse Lung Injury

Figure 7

Localization of activated NE680 ex vivo. Lungs were snap frozen in OCT for fluorescence microscopy. The distribution of NIR fluorescence was determined using fluorescence microscopy. Digital images were captured using appropriate filters for DAPI, and the near-infrared agent. In the top panel, the distribution of activated NE680 is shown in red, nuclei are counterstained with DAPI (blue). Final magnification 200×. Bottom panel shows comparable sections taken from the same specimens showing increased cell infiltration in the lung of mice with ALI and ALI treated with sivelestat as compared to controls.