Intermittent Hypoxia Increases the Severity of Bleomycin-Induced Lung Injury in Mice

Figure 7

Lung fibrosis is increased in response to intermittent hypoxia. Quantitative RT-PCR was performed to estimate (a) Col1a1, (b) Col3a1, (c) Fn1, and (d) Ctgf mRNA levels in whole lung homogenate from mice in the 4 experimental groups and normalized to B2m mRNA. Results are expressed as means ± SE of 5 animals per group. (e) Lung histology of mice at day 21. Lung sections were prepared at day 21 in the 4 experimental groups and stained with haematoxylin and eosin to assess lung morphology. (f) Soluble collagen content was assessed by Sircol assay in lung homogenates in saline-treated mice (n = 5–10 mice per group) compared with BLM-treated mice (n = 14–18 mice per group). versus Saline-IA; versus Saline-IA; versus Saline-IA; versus BLM-IA; versus BLM-IA.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)