Figure 8

PG/VG aerosols increase mucus concentration and MMP-9 activity in sheep in vivo. (A) Study design for in vivo exposures of sheep to e-cig aerosols of PG/VG. (B) Quantification of mucus concentration (% mucus solids) measured from tracheal secretions of sheep at baseline (BL) or after five-day exposure to PG/VG e-cig aerosols. n = 5 sheep (represented by different shapes), which were sampled 1 time (3 sheep), 5 times (1 sheep), and 3 times (1 sheep), resulting in 11 datapoints in the permutation analysis and shown in the figure. (C) Quantification of MMP-9 activity measured from tracheal secretions of sheep at baseline (BL) or after five-day exposure to PG/VG e-cig aerosols. n = 3 sheep (represented by different shapes), which were sampled 2 times (2 sheep) and 3 times (1 sheep) for baseline and 3 times each for PG/VG, resulting in 7 (baseline) and 9 (PG/VG) datapoints in the permutation analysis and shown in the figure. Statistics: Data shown as median (line), 25th to 75th percentiles (box), and minimum to maximum values (whiskers). *p < 0.05, LMM permutation test.