Fig. 5

Vascular remodeling in silica treated lungs. a Right Ventricular Systolic Pressure (RVSP) was measured using pressure catheter inserted into right ventricle through jugular vein. The results are shown as mean ± SEM, *p < 0.05. b Lung sections were stained with Mason’s trichrome to visualize collagen and imaged at 400x magnification. Representative images of pulmonary arteries from control (a) and silica treated Sod3^+/+ (image b) or Sod3^−/− (image c) mice. c Lung sections (5 μm thick) were stained with antibodies specific for endothelium-specific von Willebrand Factor vWF (red) and α-smooth muscle actin (green). Nuclei were stained using DAPI (blue). Images were taken using 40x objective. Panel a: representative images of pulmonary arteries from control mice. Panel b and c: images of pulmonary arteries with proliferated smooth muscle cell layer. d Quantitative analysis of vascular wall remodeling expressed as ratio of smooth muscle vascular wall area/inner diameter. Bar = 100 μm. *p < 0.05 when compared to control lung, One Way ANOVA with Holm-Sidak post test