Animal studies
Male C57BL/6 mice (aged 8–10 weeks, body weight 22 ± 3 g) were purchased from Beijing SiPeiFu Biotechnology Co., Ltd, China. All mice were housed conventionally at 22°C under a 12-h light-dark cycle with access to water and food ad libitum. All animal experiments were performed in compliance with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) policies in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of CHINA-JAPAN Friendship Hospital.
Eighteen mice were randomly divided into three groups of 6 mice each, including a control group, an acute lung injury (ALI) group and an ALI+ plasmid DNA containing the IL35 gene (pcDNA-IL35) group. pcDNA-IL35 was purchased from Gene Pharma (Shanghai, China) and injected into mice by tail intravenous injection (i.v.) according to the manufacturer's instructions[19]. The experimental procedures are described below (Fig. 1). Mice from the control group were given 2 ml of PBS by i.v. and received an intraperitoneal injection (i.p.) of normal saline after 7 days. Mice from the ALI group were given 2 ml of PBS by i.v. and received an i.p. injection of LPS (10 mg/kg, Sigma, USA) after 7 days. Mice from the ALI+IL35 group were given 2 ml of PBS containing 100 µg of pcDNA-IL35 by i.v. and received an i.p. injection of LPS (10 mg/kg) after 7 days. All mice were anesthetized intraperitoneally with an overdose of sodium pentobarbital at 12 h postinjury. Subsequently, the lungs were perfused and isolated for collection of paraffin sections for histological examination and PCR analyses.
Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining
Lung tissues were collected and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde. Then, 5-µm sections from the paraffin blocks of tissues were stained with hematoxylin-eosin (HE) and observed under an optical microscope (Olympus, Japan). The lung injury score was calculated by two researchers without group information as described previously[20]. Five independent variables, including neutrophils in the alveolar space, neutrophils in the interstitial space, the existence of hyaline membranes, proteinaceous debris filling the airspaces and alveolar septal thickening, were used to generate a lung injury score[20].
Masson staining
Lung tissues were stained with a Ponceau-fuchsin solution, rinsed with glacial acetic acid and then immersed in phosphomolybdic acid. After the excess liquid was absorbed by the filter paper, the sections were stained with an aniline blue solution, soaked in glacial acetic acid, washed with water, air‐dried, treated with xylene three times and then mounted. An optical microscope (Olympus, Japan) was used to detect collagen deposition appearing on the airway walls of lung tissues.
Immunofluorescence and immunohistochemical staining
Lung tissues were collected and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, and immunofluorescence staining was performed according to the manufacturer’s standard protocol[8]. Briefly, tissue specimens were cut into 5-µm serial sections and blocked with 10% blocking serum in PBS. The sections were then incubated with primary antibodies against IL35 EBi3 (Abclonal, A19613, China) and CD68 (Abcam, ab53444, USA) or CD206 (Santa Cruz, sc-58986, USA), MPO (Abcam, ab208670, USA) at 4°C overnight. Next, the sections were incubated with Alexa Fluor 488-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG secondary antibody or Alexa Fluor Plus 555-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG secondary antibody or Alexa Fluor 488 -conjugated goat anti-rat IgG secondary antibody or Alexa Fluor 488 -conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG secondary antibody (Molecular Probes, Invitrogen, USA) for 1 hour at room temperature. DAPI (Invitrogen, USA) was used for nuclear staining. The sections were observed with a fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Japan), and the images were analyzed using ImageJ (Bethesda, MD, USA).
Immunohistochemical staining was used to evaluate IL35 p35, Bax, Bcl2, TLR4, MD2 and p-P65/P65 in lung tissues according to the manufacturer’s standard protocol[21]. Briefly, tissue specimens were cut into 5-µm serial sections, deparaffinized, rehydrated, blocked and incubated with primary antibodies against IL35 p35 (R&D Systems, MAB6688, USA), Bax (Abcam, ab32503, USA), Bcl2 (Abcam, ab182858, USA), TLR4 (Abcam, ab13867, USA), MD2 (Abcam, ab24182, USA), p-P65 (Abclonal, AP0475, China) or P65 (Abcam, ab16502, USA) at 4°C overnight. Next, the sections were incubated with biotinylated IgG (1:250) for 1 hour and then with streptavidin-HRP for 30 min at room temperature. DAB was then added to each section for 5 min. The sections were observed with a microscope (Olympus, Japan), and the images were analyzed using Image-Pro Plus 6.0 (Media cybernetics, USA).
TUNEL staining
Lung tissues were collected and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde, and tissue specimens were cut into 5-µm serial sections. Terminal deoxynucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) staining was performed using an In Situ Cell Death Detection Kit (Roche, Mannheim, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. The sections were observed with a fluorescence microscope (Olympus, Japan) with 10 fields of view randomly selected, and the rate of cell apoptosis was determined using ImageJ (Bethesda, MD, USA). Green nuclei were considered positive-apoptotic cells. The cells with blue nuclei were deemed to be normal, and the average value was determined accordingly. The ratio of the number of green cells to that of blue cells was regarded as the rate of cell apoptosis.
Quantitative real-time PCR
Total RNA was extracted from lung tissues using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Carlsbad, CA), and cDNA synthesis was performed using random hexamer primers and a reverse transcription kit (TaKaRa, Japan) according to the manufacturer's protocol[11]. RT–PCR was performed using a SYBR® PremixEx Taq II Kit (TaKaRa, Japan) on a 7500 Fast Real Time PCR system from Applied Biosystems (Bio–Rad, USA). The relative gene expression levels were determined by the comparative critical threshold (ΔΔCT) method. Primer sequences of mouse genes were in Table 1.
Table 1
Primer sequences used for RT-PCR analysis
Genes | Sequences |
IL1β | forward | 5′-GCATCCAGCTTCAAATCTCGC-3′ |
| reverse | 5′-TGTTCATCTCGGAGCCTGTAGTG-3′ |
IL6 | forward | 5′-AGTTGCCTTCTTGGGACTG-3′ |
| reverse | 5′-AGGTCTGTTGGGAGTGGTATC-3′ |
GAPDH | forward | 5′-AAGAAGGTGGTGAAGCAGGCATC-3′ |
| reverse | 5′-CGGCATCGAAGGTGGAAGAGTG-3′ |
Statistical analysis
Data are presented as the means ± S.E.M. One-way ANOVA with Dunnett or Bonferroni tests was used to analyze statistical significance as appropriate. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The statistical analyses were performed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions 19.0 (SPSS, Systat Software, San Jose, CA, USA).