Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 5 pp 4322—4336

Figure 6. Astragaloside IV (ASV) alleviates IPF through regulating sirt1 AS/sirt1/ foxo3 axis. (A) Sirt1 AS expression in the pulmonary tissues from control mice, mice treated with bleomycin (BLM), BLM+ adenovirus shRNA against sirt1 AS (ad-sh-sirt1 AS) or BLM+ adenovirus negative shRNA (n=10 per group). (B) H&E and Masson’s trichrome staining showed pulmonary injury and collagen deposition of pulmonary tissues in mice treated with bleomycin (BLM), BLM+ adenovirus shRNA against sirt1 AS (ad-sh-sirt1 AS) or BLM+ adenovirus negative shRNA. (C) Immunofluorescence staining showing the overlap of E-cadherin (red) and a-SMA (green) in pulmonary tissues from indicated groups. (D) Immunohistochemistry analysis indicated the expression of levels of collagen 1 and fibronectin 1 in pulmonary tissues from indicated groups. (E–H) QPCR analysis demonstrated the relative expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related markers, α-SMA, E-cadherin, Collagen 1 and Fibronectin1 mRNA in indicated groups (n=10 per group). (I) Western blot assay and quantitative analyses of EMT-related markers, α-SMA, E-cadherin, Collagen 1 and Fibronectin1 protein in indicated groups (n=10 per group). (J) Western blot assay and quantitative analyses of sirt1, phosphorylated Akt, Akt and Foxo3 proteins in pulmonary tissues from indicated groups. * P<0.05 vs. control group; ** P<0.05 vs. BLM group; # P<0.05 vs. BLM+ASV+sh-Scramb group.