Fig. 2

Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell counts and cytokines levels. (A) Cell counts: Total white blood cells, neutrophils, macrophages, and lymphocytes in BALF on days 3, 7, 14, and 28 after acute lung injury and cell therapy. The + BLM group shows significant increases compared to controls (− BLM) at various time points, which are significantly reduced in the BLM + MSC group. (B) Cytokine levels: IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-10 levels in BALF on days 3, 7, 14, and 28 after acute lung injury and cell therapy. Pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated in the + BLM group during the acute phase (IL-6 up to day 14 and TNF-α up to day 7). The anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 shows a transient increase on day 7. The BLM + MSC group shows significant reductions in these cytokines at corresponding time points. Abbreviations: BALF, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; WBC, white blood cells; Neut, neutrophils; Mφ, macrophages; Lymph, lymphocytes; −BLM, the control rats received PBS instead of bleomycin and cell suspension; +BLM, the rats sustained induced ALI with bleomycin that did not undergo cell therapy, received PBS instead of cell suspension; BLM + MSC, the rats sustained ALI with bleomycin that underwent cell therapy with human fetal lung mesenchymal cells at day 0. Data are mean ± SD; *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (Only statistically significant differences between groups are indicated in the figure).