Fig. 4

Prophylactic administration of pNAPE-LP/Palmitate accounts for histological damage attenuation, reduction of pro-inflammatory markers expression and MPO activity in mice lungs. Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) stained lung specimens (A), relative quantification of infiltrated epithelial cells (B), the neutrophil count (C) and the global lung damage score (D) showing the protective effect of pNAPE-LP/palmitate treatment on SP-induced lung injury (magnification ??×, scale bar: ??? µm). Representative immunofluorescence images showing the co-expression of NLRP3 (green) and ACE-2 (red) and their merge (E) on the left and the expression of TLR4 (red) on the surface of CD68⁺ (green) cells in mice lung specimens with their respective quantification (G,H) display the protective effect of pNAPE-LP/Palmitate treatment on mice lungs following SP-mediated injury. Effect of pNAPE-LP prophilactic treatment in reducing the MPO activity in lung tissue (I). Nuclei were also investigated using DAPI staining. Results are expressed as mean ± SEM of n = 5 experiments performed in triplicate. *** p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 vs. SP [500 µg/Kg]. Scale bar = 20 μm; magnification 20×