Figure 5

Anti-pulmonary fibrosis activity of miR-708-3p in vivo. (a) The miR-708-3p agomir, fluorescently labeled with Cy5, was tracked and observed to concentrate in the lung, as revealed by small-animal imaging technology. (b) The animal lungs were imaged at each time point through small-animal imaging technology. (c) The FVC% in the miR-708-3p agomir and sham groups was higher than those in the BLM group. (d) H&E staining revealed thinner alveolar walls of tissue sections and more continuous structures in the miR-708-3p agomir-treated group than in the BLM group (× 400 magnification). (e) Masson’s trichrome staining showed that miR-708-3p agomir treatment reduced the number of fibroblasts and the amount of collagen matrix relative to those in the BLM group. Blue stain denotes collagen (× 400 magnification). (f) Ultrastructural changes were observed in the cells of the miR-708-3p agomir and sham groups, as observed by TEM. (g) MiR-708-3p agomir promoted E-cadherin expression and inhibited α-SMA, vimentin and Snail expression. (h) MiR-708-3p agomir blocked ADAM17 expression. (i) MiR-708-3p agomir diminished the STAT3, GATA3 and GATA4 expression levels. Each bar represents mean±s.d.; n=6. *P<0.05, **P<0.01. H&E, hematoxylin and eosin.