Adaptation of the Oxygen Sensing System during Lung Development

Figure 7

HRG expression with and without HIF1α protein stabilization in embryonic, fetal, neonatal, and adult lung ex vivo organ cultures. The lungs were dissected at E12 (a, b), E18 (c, d), P0 (e, f), and adult stage (g, h) and were cultured on transwell filters for 21 h at 80/21/1% O₂ resulting in no (-) HIF1α or (+) stabilization (b, d, f, h). Absolute expression levels of bona fide HRGs were determined by qPCR (a, c, e, g). Developmental stage is indicated by postconception days (E) or postnatal days (P). The black bars represent the medians (for easier reference: (mlcs), , and ). The intrauterine period is indicated by the gray background color. Statistical significance (Mann-Whitney test, per condition) is indicated by and . (b, d, f, h) HIF (de)stabilization was confirmed by immunoblotting of 4 pooled lung ex vivo organ culture lysates for each set of experiments. β-Actin served as a loading control.