Hepatocyte Growth Factor, a Determinant of Airspace Homeostasis in the Murine Lung
Figure 1
Generation and characterization of mice deficient in Met expression in alveolar epithelial cells.
A. Right panel-Representative immunohistochemical staining of c-Met in 2 week old mouse lungs. 40× magnification. N = 4–6 mice. Arrows denote expression in type II epithelial cells. Left panel-Representative immunohistochemical staining for HGF in 2 week old mouse lungs. 40× magnification. N = 4–6 mice. Scale bar (L): 25 µm, (R): 50 µm. Arrows denote exclusion of HGF from alveolar epithelial cells with apparent localization to the interstitium. B. Representative fluorescent immunohistochemistry of phosphorylated c-Met in mice deficient in Met and bitransgenic controls. Green-p-Met. 40× magnification. N = 4–6 mice. Scale bar: 25 µm. C. Quantitative immunohistochemistry of p-met expression in the airspace of Met-deleted mice and controls. D. Representative histology of mice deficient in airspace Met expression and controls at two weeks of age. Note patchy airspace enlargement in the targeted mice. Scale bar: 100 µm. E. Airspace dimension by morphometry in Met-deficient mice and controls at 2 and 3 weeks of age. F. Quantitation of SPC+ cells in the airspace by SPC immunohistochemistry in Met-deficient mice compared with control bitransgenic mice. *p<0.05. G. Representative thrombomodulin immunohistochemical staining of the microvascular bed in the lung parenchyma of Met deficient mice compared with controls. Inset shows reduced staining in the alveolar epithelial walls. 40× magnification, inset 100×. N = 5–7 mice per genotype. H. Quantitative immunohistochemistry of thromobomodulin staining of Met-deficient mice and controls. **p<0.01.