Fig. 3

Tracheal and lung histology of WT, Aldh2*2 Tg, and Aldh2 ^−/− mice. (a-i) Trachea paraffin sections from WT, Aldh2*2 Tg, and Aldh2 ^−/− mice collected from newborn, adult, and aged mice were stained with H&E and examined for epithelial thickness and nuclear density, n = 4-6 mice/group. Two-headed arrows show epithelial thickness (a-i). Similar tracheal sections were immunostained for basal (K5-green), club (Clara) (CC10-red), and ciliated cell (β-tubulin-cyan) markers to quantify the tracheal cellular subtypes. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue) (j-l). Quantification of tracheal surface epithelial thickness (m) and nuclear density (n) from all three groups. o Quantification for percentage of tracheal cellular types in all groups. UD: Undetermined/Intermediate cells. *indicates significant P value compared to WT. Lung paraffin sections from adult WT, Aldh2*2 Tg, and Aldh2 ^−/− mice were stained with H&E and examined for airway and parenchymal abnormalities (p-r). Similar lung sections were immunostained for club (Clara) (CC10-red) and ciliated cell (β-tubulin-green) markers to quantify the intrapumonary airway cellular subtypes. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue) (s-u). v Quantification for intrapumonary airway percentages of club/ciliated cells in all mice groups. Scale bars: a-i: 25 μm, j-l: 50 μm