Fig. 1: Lung-specific knockout of FOXN3 promotes pulmonary fibrosis.
From: Phosphorylation of FOXN3 by NEK6 promotes pulmonary fibrosis through Smad signaling
a A quantitative PCR assay was conducted to validate the efficiency of FOXN3 KO in the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice following the administration of Cre-recombinase (n = 4). b Western blot analysis was conducted to validate the efficiency of FOXN3 KO in the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice following the administration of Cre-recombinase (n = 3). c Histological trichrome staining analysis comparing the fibrotic response in the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice with or without the administration of Cre-recombinase, in the presence or absence of BLM induction. Scale bars, 100 μm. d H&E staining analysis showing the inflammatory response in the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice with or without the administration of Cre-recombinase, in the presence or absence of BLM induction. Scale bars, 100 μm. e The Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was conducted to measure the levels of TNFα and IL-6 in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid obtained from the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice with or without the administration of Cre-recombinase following BLM treatment (n = 5). f Quantitative PCR analysis was conducted in the lungs of mice to evaluate the impact of lung-specific FOXN3 knockout on the expression levels of pro-fibrotic factors (n = 4). g A hydroxyproline assessment was performed to evaluate the collagen content in the lungs of Foxn3fl/fl mice with or without the administration of Cre-recombinase, in the presence or absence of BLM induction (n = 4). h Quantitative PCR analysis was conducted in A549 cells with or without siRNA-mediated FOXN3 knockdown to detect the changes in the RNA levels of pro-fibrotic factors. The cells were collected 48 hrs post-transfection. Representative data from three independent experiments (n = 3). i A western blot assay was conducted on the total cell lysate (TCL) of A549 cells to assess the efficiency of FOXN3 protein knockdown. The cells were collected 48 hrs post-transfection. Representative blot from three independent experiments (n = 3). The data (a) and (e) were assessed by two-tailed Student’s t test, and the data (f–h) were assessed by one-way ANOVA. All data are shown as the mean ± SD.
