Fig. 4

Intratracheal instillation of ceramide increases while AG490 and Stattic administration attenuates MMP-9 expression in vivo. BALB/c mice were treated with AG490 at 15 mg/kg of body weight or Stattic at 5 mg/kg of body weight. The mice were then exposed to 5 mg/kg of C6-ceramide by intratracheal instillation. (a) Representative Hematoxylin and Eosin sections of lung tissues (200×). (b) PAS staining of lung tissues (200×). (c) Masson’s trichrome staining of lung tissues (200×). (d) Representative images of CD68 positive cells in the lung tissues. (e and f) MMP-9 expression was examined by RT-qPCR (e) and Western blotting (f), and quantification of the MMP-9 protein expression was determined by densitometric analysis of the blots. n = 6 per group. ^##P < 0.01 vs the control group; ^∗P < 0.05 vs the C6-ceramide-stimulated group