Fig. 2: CRHPVN neurons regulate ALI and survival.
From: Paraventricular nucleus CRH neurons regulate acute lung injury via sympathetic nerve–neutrophil axis
a Experimental scheme of chemogenetic activation of CRHPVN neurons in CRH-IRES-Cre mice subjected to ALI. Noting the mCherry expression (Red) after AAV injection. Scale bar: 100 μm. b Kaplan–Meier survival analysis of control mice and hM3Dq-expressing mice (excitatory DREADD) repeatedly receiving i.p. CNO for 5 days following intranasal LPS (n = 10 mice per group). Representative H&E staining (c) and lung injury scores (d) based on 15 sections per lung of PBS-treated, LPS-treated control, and LPS-treated hM3Dq mice receiving CNO (n = 4 mice per group). Scale bars: 1 mm (low magnification), 50 μm (high magnification). Lung W/D ratio (e) (n = 6 mice per group), BALF protein concentration (f) (n = 8 mice per group), and IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF mRNA levels (g) (n = 10 mice per group) of PBS-treated, LPS-treated control, and LPS-treated hM3Dq mice receiving CNO. h Experimental scheme of chemogenetic inhibition of CRHPVN neurons in CRH-IRES-Cre mice subjected to ALI. i Kaplan–Meier survival analysis of control mice and hM4Di-expressing mice (inhibitory DREADD) after intranasal LPS exposure (n = 8 mice per group). Representative lung histological sections (j) and lung injury scores (k) based on 15 sections per lung of PBS-treated, LPS-treated control, and LPS-treated hM4Di mice receiving CNO (n = 5 mice per group). Scale bar: 1 mm (low magnification), 50 μm (high magnification). Lung W/D ratio (l) (n = 6 mice per group), BALF protein concentration (m) (n = 6 mice per group), and RT-qPCR analysis of IL-6, IL-1β, and TNF mRNA levels (n) (n = 6 mice per group) of PBS-treated, LPS-treated control, and LPS-treated hM4Di mice receiving CNO. Statistical differences were determined by the Log-rank (Mantel–Cox) test (b, i) and 1-way ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc multiple comparisons test (d–g, k–n). Each dot represents an individual mouse. Unless specified otherwise, the data are presented as mean ± SEM. a, h were created in BioRender. Liu, T. (2025) https://BioRender.com/p48gmjd. All experiments were repeated three times, yielding similar results. Source data are provided as a Source data file. ALI acute lung injury, BALF bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, CNO clozapine-N-oxide, CRH corticotropin-releasing hormone, H&E hematoxylin and eosin, W/D wet-to-dry, PVN paraventricular nucleus, RT-qPCR reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction.
