Increased Levels of ER Stress and Apoptosis in a Sheep Model for Pulmonary Fibrosis Are Alleviated by In Vivo Blockade of the KCa3.1 Ion Channel

Figure 4

Effects of senicapoc and pirfenidone treatment on apoptosis induced by bleomycin in type II AECs and macrophages. (a) Representative images from colorimetric TUNEL assays to identify apoptotic type II AECs and macrophages in sheep lung segments treated with either methylcellulose (control), senicapoc, or pirfenidone. Arrows indicate apoptotic type II alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) and macrophages (M). (b, c) Graphs represent the rate of apoptosis in type II AECs and macrophages between the different treatment groups (n = 10 sheep/group). The data was collected from twenty representative, non-overlapping fields captured at 40x magnification. Each bar represents the mean ± standard error of the mean. The group structure and experimental timeline for procedures in this experiment are given in Figures 3(a) and 3(b). Significance was determined by one-way ANOVA and a Tukey’s post hoc test to make multiple comparisons test between groups. , , and .

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