Figure 8

VEGF164 and VEGF188 decrease hyperoxia-induced apoptosis in airway epithelial cells. (A’) E10.5 lungs were harvested, infected with Ad-DsRed (A,B), Ad-Vegf164 (C) or Ad-Vegf188 (D) and exposed on E12.5 to either 3% (A) or 50% (B-D) oxygen for 2 d. followed by TUNEL staining (green), cytokeratin staining (red), and DAPI staining (blue). The cytokeratin positive epithelial compartment is outlined with white dots. Arrows indicate TUNEL positive nuclei (green). (E) Quantification of TUNEL positive cells/total cells and F) TUNEL positive, cytokeratin positive cells/total cytokeratin positive cells. (B’) Explant lungs treated as in (A’) with similar conditions (A-D) were stained with anti-cleaved caspase 3 (green), cytokeratin (red) and DAPI (blue). Arrows indicate cleaved caspase 3 positive cells. (E) Quantification of cleaved caspase 3 positive cells/total cells and F) Cleaved caspase 3 positive, cytokeratin positive cells/total cytokeratin positive cells. n = 4 separate experiments with 2–3 lungs/condition/experiment. *p < 0.05 3% oxygen + DsRed, 50% oxygen + Ad-Vegf164 or Ad-Vegf188 vs. 50% oxygen + Ad-DsRed, n = 4 Bar = 20 microns. Photographs at 100× magnification.