Fig. 2

Female Balb/C mice are more susceptible to bleomycin-induced dermal fibrosis than female C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice. a Representative images of H&E-stained sections of female mouse skin treated with subcutaneous NaCl or bleomycin injections given every other day over a period of 3 weeks. Original magnification ×100. b Dermal thickness of skin harvested from female mice treated with NaCl or bleomycin after 3 weeks. Four high-power field images were taken (two measurements per image). Results represent the relative fold-change compared to NaCl-treated control mice. c Representative images of second harmonic generation imaging of type I fibrillary collagen in mouse skin harvested after 3 weeks of treatment with NaCl or bleomycin injected every other day. Original magnification ×250. d Hydroxyproline assay: results are represented as means ± standard error of the mean (SEM) of triplicate measurements obtained from six mice (two biopsies per mouse) and shown as relative fold-change compared to NaCl-treated control samples. e Representative images of α-SMA immunohistochemistry. Original magnification ×200, inset ×630. f Relative number of alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA)-positive cells in the dermis of NaCl- or bleomycin-treated mice. Results represent the relative fold-change compared to NaCl-treated control mice. All values represent means ± SEM; n = 6 in each group. n.s. not significant