Figure 5

Double positive cells for SPC and α-SMA existed in the human lung tissue. The lung sections from biopsy (5 d) and autopsy (62 d) were stained with SPC (green) and α-SMA (red) antibodies followed by incubation with fluorescent dye-tagged secondary antibodies. Hoechst was used to stain the nuclei (blue). The mean fluorescence intensity of α-SMA in each whole image was automatically quantified by Image-Pro Plus software and expressed in fluorescence units (FU) and bar graph represents the average value from three independent experiments (left). Yellow fluorescence represents fluorescence coexpression indicating that epithelial cells underwent EMT. The α-SMA⁺SPC⁺ cells and SPC⁺ cells were counted respectively in each whole image and bar graph represents the average value (α-SMA⁺SPC⁺ cells/ SPC⁺ cells) from three independent experiments (right). P-values were calculated using two-tailed Student’s t-tests. ^#, P < 0.05.