Fig. 10

Exposure to diesel exhaust particulate matter in conjunction with consumption of a HF diet results in increased furin protein expression in the bronchioles of C57BL/6 mice. Representative images of furin expression in the bronchioles of C57Bl/6 mice on a control (LF; A-C) or high-fat (HF; G-I) diet exposed to saline (CON) or on a LF (D-F) or HF diet (J-L) exposed to diesel exhaust particles (DEP – 35 µg PM) twice a week for a total of 30 days. Red fluorescence indicates furin expression, and blue fluorescence indicates the nuclear staining (Hoechst). The right panels (C, F, I, L) are overlayed figures of the left (blue; A, D, G, J) and center (red; B, E, H, K) panels. M Graph of histological analysis of lung furin mean fluorescence (minimum of 4 sections per slide and n = 3 per group) and N mean normalized gene expression of furin mRNA transcript expression within the lungs, as determined by RT-qPCR (n = 6–8 per group). 40x magnification; scale bar = 100 μm. The data are presented as mean ± SEM with *p < 0.05 compared to LF + CON, †p < 0.05 compared to LF + DEP, ‡p < 0.05 compared to HF + CON by two-way ANOVA