Figure 6

Quantification of MMP-12 and CD68 immunostaining at D21 in animals receiving 500 μg NPs. Localization and quantification of MMP-12 and CD68 on lung sections of rats exposed to 500 μg NPs evaluated at D21 after elastase administration. (A) Representative histological images of staining for MMP-12 (magnification x20, left column) and CD68 (magnification x20, middle column, magnification x40, right column). Arrows point to macrophages containing NPs. (B) Quantification of MMP-12-positive cells reported to the total number of cells. (C) Quantification of CD68-positive cells reported to the total number of cells. *: p < 0.05 vs S-BSA. n = 4. Abbreviations are the same as in Figure1. Box plots show median and interquartile range (25^th and 75^th percentiles).