L’étude anatomopathologique de la lésion montrait qu’il s’agissait d’une tumeur à cellules fusiformes dont le phénotype était celui des tumeurs stromales GIST. L’immuno-marquage montrait que les cellules étaient fortement positives pour les anticorps anti-CD 117 et anti-CD 34, faiblement positives pour l’antiprotéine S 100, et négatives pour les anti-actines

musculaires lisses alpha-desmine. L’index mitotique était inférieur à mitose/10 champs. L’évolution postopératoire a été favorable. Nous avons adressé le malade par la suite à un dermatologue pour prise en charge de sa maladie de Von Recklinghausen cutanée et nous avons proposé une surveillance annuelle par un entéroscanner. La neurofibromatose de type I,

appelée aussi périphérique ou maladie de Recklinghausen, concerne une naissance sur Afatinib 3000, résulte d’une transmission autosomique dominante, peut être sporadique, et implique une anomalie sur le chromosome 17. Les atteintes digestives de la maladie de Recklinghausen surviennent à l’âge moyen de la vie, cas de notre observation clinique, en général bien plus tard que les lésions cutanées, et PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition peuvent être divisées en quatre entités [1] : • les lésions du système nerveux digestif intrinsèque et de ses tissus de support ; Une atteinte digestive est présente chez environ 7 à 25% des malades atteints de maladie de Von Recklinghausen. À côté du tube digestif qui est le plus souvent concerné, le foie et le pancréas peuvent également être atteints [3]. La notion de malignité not doit être présente à l’esprit car globalement le risque de tumeurs malignes au cours de la maladie de Recklinghausen serait quatre fois plus élevé que dans la population générale [4]. Les circonstances diagnostiques des tumeurs stromales GIST sont variables : découverte fortuite, douleurs, syndrome de masse, anémie, hémopéritoine, et surtout hémorragie digestive qui est le symptôme le plus fréquent [1], [2] and [3].

Un des points particuliers de notre observation est la révélation de cette tumeur digestive de façon fortuite par un tableau de péritonite appendiculaire. Comme dans notre observation, la plupart d’entre elles présentent cependant le profil immuno-histochimique caractéristique des GIST, défini notamment par l’expression du marqueur C-Kit et de la protéine CD34 [3] and [4]. Toutes les études évoquent les difficultés du diagnostic histologique, celles à faire la part entre malignité et bénignité et donc les incertitudes pronostiques : la combinaison d’un index mitotique supérieur à cinq mitoses pour 50 champs à fort grossissement et une taille supérieure à 5 cm sont très en faveur de la malignité [1], [4] and [5].

However, a vast number of the studies revealed quite diverse functionality of CCN2, which obviously represents the property of this molecule as a CCN family member, as summarized in Table 1. Therefore, it is not surprising that nearly 10 different names have been assigned to this single molecule during the progression of research on CCN2 [1], [3], [4] and [5]. Most critical

biomolecules possess a dark side as well as a bright side of their functions. In this point of Selleckchem BMS387032 view, CCN2 is a typical double-edged sword in various microenvironments. Indeed, CCN2 is involved in physiological events during the development and growth of a variety of organ and tissues [1] and [10], particularly of mesenchymal http://www.selleckchem.com/products/NVP-AUY922.html ones. Positive aspects of the functional properties of CCN2 are also represented by the potential of

this molecule to accelerate the regeneration of damaged tissues, including bone and cartilage [12] and [13]. Of note, even a cardioprotective effect of CCN2 against myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury was reported [14]. Most relevant reports describe the positive effects of CCN2 on cell growth and differentiation [9] and [10], save for one showing the dedifferentiation of skeletal muscle cells induced by CCN2 [15]. Contrarily, it is also widely recognized that CCN2 is a major mediator of fibrotic disorders and a critical determinant of the phenotype of certain malignancies. Involvement of CCN2 in fibrosis of multiple organs was described

in a number of reports [4], [7] and [16], conferring the title of profibrotic molecule on CCN2. As listed in [75] and [76], pathogenic involvement of the CCN2 gene is frequently observed in a large number of types of malignant tumors, including cancers that originate in the epidermis [4], [7], [10] and [17]. These findings may indicate the possible contribution of CCN2 to epidermal-mesenchymal transition (EMT) events, because this factor acts as a key player Dolichyl-phosphate-mannose-protein mannosyltransferase in mesenchymal tissue development. However, the role of CCN2 in determining the malignant phenotype is still controversial and complicated. It has been solidly indicated that CCN2 promotes bone metastasis of breast cancers [5] and [10], whereas its overexpression rather shifts the phenotype of oral cancer cells toward a benign one [18] and [19]. How can CCN2 action have such apparently opposite outcomes? As briefly stated in the previous section, the multiple biological outcomes effected by CCN2 are conferred by multiple interactions with a vast number of collaborative molecules (Fig. 1). In fact, CCN2 is reported to interact with multiple molecular counterparts from different categories [7], [10], [20], [21], [22] and [23], which are summarized in Table 2. This interaction with a variety of collaborators enables CCN2 to execute apparently contradictory missions, i.e.

18, 19 and 20 In addition, some studies have also identified MCs derived from tryptase and chymase as powerful MMP activators.21 and 22 The literature agrees with the role of the stromal microenvironment in tumoral progression. Various experiments show evidence of cooperation or synergy between neoplasic and stromal

cells in MMP production.23 and 24 The purpose of the present study was to evaluate MC density and migration and their association to MMP-9 expression in AC and lip SCC to better understand the role of MCs and MMP-9 in these lesions. We selected 20 cases of AC, 20 cases of SCC, and 7 cases of normal lip (used as control), all embedded in paraffin, from the files of the Pathologic Anatomy Service of the Oral Pathology Course, Dentistry Program, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). For standardization purposes, selected cases selleck chemicals were microscopically Selleck NU7441 examined by 2 independent examiners through the review of histologic sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Histologic features for AC included epithelial changes (keratosis, hyperkeratosis, hyperplasia, atrophy, acanthosis, ulceration, and dysplasia) and connective tissue alterations (solar elastosis and inflammation).1 and 3

Microscopic features for SCC were analyzed according to the World Health Organization tumor classification.2 The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at UFRN. Paraffin-embedded tissues were sectioned (3 μm) and extended in glass slides coated with 2% 3-aminopropyltriethoxy-silane (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA). Sections were deparaffinized by immersion in xylene, followed by immersion in alcohol with 3% hydrogen peroxide to block endogenous

peroxidase activity, and then washed in Tris-buffered saline solution (TBS; pH 7.4). Antigen retrieval, Etomidate incubation, dilution are shown in Table I. Sections were blocked by incubation with 3% normal goat serum diluted in distilled water at room temperature for 20 minutes. Slides were then incubated with the primary antibodies in a humidified chamber. After washing in TBS, sections were treated with labeled streptavidin-biotin kits (K0690; Dako, Glostrup, Denmark) for tryptase and MMP-9 and with the Envision system (K4001; system-labeled polymer–horseradis peroxidase; DakoCytomation, Carpinteria, CA, USA) for c-Kit. We used 0.03% diaminobenzidine (DAB; Sigma, Chemical Co.) as chromogen, and counterstaining was performed with Mayer hematoxylin. Positive control samples for tryptase, c-Kit, and MMP-9 were, respectively, sections of lung, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and liver. As negative control subjects, samples were treated as above, except that the primary antibody was replaced by a solution of bovine serum albumin in phosphate-buffered saline solution.

In comparison with these residues, gum presented a significantly higher γ-oryzanol content; however, the highest content was found, by far, in the soap samples, largely differing from that of the other residues (14.2 mg g−1, representing 95.3% of the total γ-oryzanol distribution). This value agreed with

reported γ-oryzanol contents in crude RBO (12.4 mg g−1, Pestana et al., 2008), thus confirming that almost all the γ-oryzanol was precipitated during neutralisation. As indicated in Table 2, the sum of the amounts of γ-oryzanol found in all the residues, as well as in the final products of RBO refining (refined RBO and purified fatty acids), represented ca. 12.7% of the initial Docetaxel molecular weight amount of this phytochemical

Bortezomib in vitro in crude RBO. The data given in Table 1 for γ-oryzanol agree with other reported values. Thus, according to Krishna, Khatoon, and Shiela (2001), the reduction of the γ-oryzanol content in RBO during neutralisation can be as large as 93–95.8%, whereas only small percentages are lost during degumming and dewaxing (1.1–2.3% and 2.0–5.9%, respectively). According to Orthoefer (1996) and Mishra, Gopalakrishna, and Prabhakar (1988), during neutralisation, high losses of neutral oil (18–22%), maximized by the synergistic effect of the precipitated soap and γ-oryzanol, occur. Both neutral oil and γ-oryzanol dragging, during soap precipitation upon neutralisation, can be due to the surfactant-like nature of soap, and probably the formation of emulsions in the precipitate. The γ-oryzanol content of 14.2 mg g−1 in the precipitated soap, given in Table 1, also agrees with the reported 12.2 mg g−1 (Scavariello, 1997). Methocarbamol This author also extracted γ-oryzanol from soap using acetone

at 10 °C for 60 min, obtaining an extract with 62.5 mg g−1 of γ-oryzanol. Finally, Krishna et al. (2001) indicated that bleaching and deodorising do not affect the γ-oryzanol content. Also according to literature reports, RBO refining produces large amounts of soap as a consequence of enzymatic activity of lipases, which largely increases the free fatty acid concentrations of crude RBO (De & Bhattacharyya, 1998). As illustrated in Fig. 2, the abundant soap residue is further treated to recover purified free fatty acids, which are then used by the cosmetics and cleaning industries. Thus, in order to support the development of procedures for γ-oryzanol recovery, its contents in the residues of soap processing should also be established. This point is further discussed in the next section. As also shown in Table 1, the δ-, (β + γ)- and α-tocopherol contents were separately quantified. With the exception of cast-off bleaching earth, all the other residues of RBO refining showed the following relative contents of the individual tocopherols: δ < (β + γ) < α. This order agreed with the reported values for crude RBO (Pestana et al., 2008).

0 cm long × 4.0 mm i.d., 5 μm) containing the same stationary phase. The samples were injected automatically

(10.0 μL). The separation and guard columns were controlled thermostatically at 40 °C and a 0.8 mL min−1 flow rate was applied, using a linear gradient of 0.2% formic acid in water (solvent A) and acetonitrile (solvent B). The optimised gradient employed for the passion fruit extracts was: 0–10 min, 12–16% B in A and 10–30 min, 16–20% B in A. The chromatogram was monitored at 330 nm, and UV spectra Fluorouracil datasheet of individual peaks were recorded in the range of 200–400 nm. The stoichiometric effect of the extracts on ROS production by PMN was measured by lucigenin-enhanced CL. Lucigenin is considered as a good chemiluminescence probe for measuring extracellular superoxide anions because it does not enter the cells (Caldefie-Chézet et al., 2002). This technique is used to measure the ability of the substances

in the extracts to neutralise superoxide anion-derived radical species produced during neutrophil stimulation. Fig. 2 shows that both healthy and PWV-infected P. edulis rind extracts had dose-dependent inhibitory MG-132 nmr effects on CL response, with healthy rinds showing a slightly stronger effect. The 50% inhibitory concentration was between 0.01 and 0.1 mg mL−1 for healthy rinds and between 0.1 and 1 mg mL−1 for infected rinds. These results suggest that the presence of PWV can affect the content of antioxidant molecules in rinds. It is well established that the profile of phenolic compounds can vary in plants infected by Rebamipide fungal pathogens, insects and viruses ( Chatterjee and Ghosh, 2008 and Lattanzio et al., 2006). PWV currently affects passion fruit plants in Brazil, where it is the most economically important viral disease of this tropical fruit crop. In addition to

reducing the productive life of an orchard from 36 to 18 months, the virus also causes significant loss of fruit yield and quality ( Trevisan et al., 2006). Contrary to the rind extracts, the pulp extracts of P. alata and P. edulis did not show a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on CL response and only the pulp extract of P. edulis presented a high inhibitory effect (98%) at 1 mg mL−1. Interestingly, the isoorientin standard (99% purity) at low concentration also showed dose-dependent inhibitory effects on CL response, with a 50% inhibition estimated between 4 μg mL−1 and 0.4 μg mL−1. Since isoorientin is a molecule isolated from P. edulis, we can conclude that some elements contained in crude extract (such as sugars and proteins) may conceal the antioxidant activity of interesting polyphenolic molecules such as isoorientin. Rudnicki et al. (2007) demonstrated that the antioxidant activities of P. alata and P. edulis leaf extracts were significantly correlated with polyphenol content. Our results highlight that the fruit, especially the rind of P. edulis and P.

In order to examine the effect of each individual factor, possible interactions between them and to work with at realistic number of experimental setups, factorial designs were employed. Acetonitrile (extraction solvent) was of HPLC grade (Rathburn Chemicals Ltd., Y27632 Walkerburn, Scotland). Formic acid (purity 98–100% for

analysis), pipecolic acid (purity 98%), and the methanol for LC eluent (purity ⩾ 99.9%, Fluka-Analytical) were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Co. (St. Louis, MO, USA). Erythorbic acid, ascorbyl palmitate, tripolyphosphate, iron(III)sulphate hydrate and myoglobin from equine heart were also purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Co. The pure standards of N-nitrososarcosine (NSAR), N-nitrosohydroxyproline (NHPRO), N-nitrosodibenzylamine (NDBzA), N-nitrosoproline (NPRO), N-nitrosomethylaniline (NMA), N-nitroso-2-methyl-thiazolidine 4-carboxylic acid (NMTCA)

and N-nitroso-thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid (NTCA) were purchased from Toronto Research Chemicals (Toronto, Canada), whereas the standards N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), N-nitrosodipropylamine (NDPA), N-nitrosomorpholine (NMOR) and N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Co. N-nitrosomethylethylamine (NMEA), N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR), N-nitrosodibutylamine (NDBA), N-nitrosopiperidine (NPIP) were purchased from Dr. Ehrenstorfer (Ausburg, Germany). The internal standards N-nitrosodimethylamine-d6 (NDMA-d6) and N-nitrosopyrrolidine-d8 (NPYR-d8) were purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Co. and CDN Isotopes (Quebec, Canada), respectively. The purity of all of the NA standards was ⩾98% except for NMA which was of DZNeP purchase 95% purity. Sodium nitrite (Fluka-Analytical) was purchased from Sigma–Aldrich Co. Cooked pork sausages were

chosen as representative meat products, because sausages account for a major part of the total consumption of processed meat products by the Danish, buy Baf-A1 as well as other European populations (Linseisen et al., 2002). By choosing a minced meat product the ingredients are also more evenly distributed and any relevant equilibria are reached faster. Trimmed fresh pork loin with a fat content of approximately 12% (www.foodcomp.dk) was minced (Kenwood, MG470, Elgiganten, Glostrup Denmark) and all ingredients common for all samples in the setup were added during mixing (Bear Varimixer, AR5A, A/S Wodschow & Co., Broendby, Denmark). The sausage meat was prepared from tap water (26%), minced meat (67%), potato flour (4%), ground black pepper (Piper nigrum, Santa Maria A/S, Broendby, Denmark) (0.125 or 0.5%), sodium chloride (2%), paprika (0.5%), nitrite (0–350 mg kg−1 depending on the setup). Aliquots of the thoroughly mixed sausage meat were transferred to a mini chopper (Phillips hand blender with chopper, HR1372, Punkt1, Roedovre, Denmark) and further mixed with the ingredients/factors to be tested and chopped until they were evenly distributed. The sausage meat that needed no further additions was chopped in the same way.

The lack of a tool that provides systematic guidance on best practices for environmental epidemiological research is an important limitation to regulatory decisions which rely on population-based studies. WOE assessments based on environmental epidemiology selleckchem data are unique because, unlike other areas of research, experimental studies designed to elicit an adverse outcome in humans are rarely, if ever, ethically possible. Thus, environmental epidemiology studies are almost always observational and are subject to unavoidable uncertainty stemming from various sources. An important

source of uncertainty in environmental epidemiology, but also an area of rapid progress, relates to exposure science. Exposure assessment is a major determinant of the overall data quality in any environmental epidemiology study (Hertz-Picciotto, 1998), including chemicals with short physiologic half lives. Short-lived chemicals are those for which the time required to eliminate one-half of the chemical mass from the body or

from a given matrix is on the order of minutes to hours or days. The quality of the exposure assessment for short-lived chemicals is intimately tied to the data’s utility in assessing associations SRT1720 mouse with health outcomes as well as to studies using biomonitoring to examine various aspects of exposure. In recent years, exposure science methods have particularly benefited from improvements in the ability to detect environmental chemicals through biomonitoring. Biomonitoring is the measurement of chemicals in various human matrices such as blood, urine, breath, milk and hair. Biomonitoring data integrate exposure from all routes (oral, inhalation, dermal, trans-placental) and are valuable for: (1) establishing population reference ranges; (2) identifying unusual exposures for subpopulations; (3) evaluating temporal variability

and trends within a population; (4) validating questions designed to estimate individual exposure; and (5) examining associations with health outcomes in epidemiologic studies. Epidemiologic research with biomonitoring as the basis for measuring exposure for persistent organic pollutants and metals has been conducted for decades. By contrast, biomonitoring of ubiquitous chemicals with short physiologic half-lives Selleck Gemcitabine (e.g., benzene, phthalates, certain pesticides) began relatively recently, and these chemicals present several new challenges as interpretation of data on these chemicals is complicated by variability in exposure and the ubiquitous nature of many of these chemicals, including in analytical laboratories and sampling equipment. These chemicals also present challenges when selecting the matrix to be used in the research. To date, the scientific community has not developed a set of systematic guidelines for implementing and interpreting biomonitoring studies of these chemicals.

Importantly, if formulation is flexible, then

any changes in structure choice resulting from lexical and structural priming should also be accompanied by changes in the timecourse of formulation. Specifically, facilitating encoding of individual characters in Experiment 1 should result in an early accessibility effect: a first-fixated character should be produced in subject position more often if it had been primed than if it had not been primed, and speakers should spend more time fixating primed subject characters than unprimed subject characters immediately after picture onset (0–400 ms). Both results would indicate priority encoding of accessible characters before less accessible characters. This is analogous to the predicted effect of character codability on early formulation (Section 1.2), and indicates a shift towards linearly incremental planning. In contrast, facilitating encoding of sentence structure in Experiment 2 should reduce Everolimus price the likelihood of speakers fixating one character preferentially over the other character immediately after picture onset: speakers should be more likely to distribute their attention between two characters when producing a primed structure than an unprimed structure. This is similar to the predicted effect of event codability on formulation (Section 1.2) and illustrates a shift towards hierarchical incrementality.

Later in the formulation process (i.e., between 400 ms and speech onset),

the lexical and structural primes should both also influence the timing of gaze shifts from the first to the second character: lexical primes should reduce the length Gamma-secretase inhibitor Thiamet G of gazes on a primed subject character by facilitating encoding of its name and structural primes should reduce the length of gazes on the subject character by facilitating encoding of the entire event. Importantly, despite similar outcomes, the reasons for these effects can be traced back to qualitative differences in planning strategies in the two experiments. In sum, in two experiments, we undertook a systematic analysis of the influence of non-relational and relational variables on the timecourse of formulation for simple event descriptions. Similar results were expected for the two variables influencing the ease of non-relational processing (character codability and lexical accessibility) and the two variables influencing the ease of relational processing (event codability and ease of generating linguistic structures). Analyses in each experiment first verified whether all variables had the expected effect on speakers’ descriptions of target events (i.e., structure choice). First, character codability was expected to influence the assignment of characters to subject or object position based on their relative ease of naming in both experiments, and lexical priming was expected to produce a similar effect in Experiment 1.

For root mass data at different depths a two-way Multivariate Analysis

of Variance (MANOVA) was performed using land-use or season, as appropriate, and genotype as fixed factors, and the different depths as repeated measurements. The multivariate approach to the analysis of repeated measurements was used as it does not assume any particular model covariance between the repeated measurements. The hypotheses tested in an analysis of repeated measurements with treatment factor by grouping observations were: (i) there is no interaction between depth ∗ treatment, (ii) there is no effect of depth, and (iii) there is no treatment SRT1720 cost or group effect. In the case of a significant treatment effect, pairwise comparisons were performed using a Hotelling post-hoc test (P ⩽ 0.05). A second analysis was carried out partitioning the data in different

sampling depths. In this case a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using land-use type and genotype as fixed factors, with inclusion of their interactions, for each sampling depth. Two-way ANOVAs were performed also using land-use type, genotype and their interactions as treatment factors, and different dependent variables such as C%, and plant density. In the case of a significant treatment effect, pairwise comparisons were performed using AZD2281 in vivo a Tukey post-hoc test (P ⩽ 0.05). The software InfoStat ( Di Rienzo et al., 2011) was used for the analysis. Although an optimal experimental design should include a control treatment without coppicing, it was not possible in our plantation and we also recognize that the establishment phase of the plantation is a special situation. This is the most critical period after the land much use change of agriculture into SRWC. The herbaceous competition is one of the principal factors affecting the establishment, the success and the early productivity of the SRWC culture (with ecological and economic consequences). This has, however, been very poorly quantified in the literature, especially

for belowground processes. The explicit quantification of the relative root productivity of the tree crop and the competing weeds is the principal contribution of the current study. It is, therefore, essential to characterize land use change effects early in the conversion from agriculture to SRC. Our presented data are useful for models that simulate long-term changes in relation to SRC. Biomass of Fr at a depth of 0–15 cm increased during the course of the second year of the first rotation (2011, pre-coppice, Fig. 3). There was no significant increase of Fr biomass, even a small reduction, in the first year of the second rotation (2012, post-coppice) just after the first harvest. Despite this small decrease in Fr biomass in 2012 (post-coppice), the Fr productivity was higher than the pre-coppice year (i.e. 2011). Necromass of Fr did not increase post-coppice as compared to pre-coppice (Fig. 3).

005 mg kg iv), and ventilated with a constant flow ventilator (Samay VR15; Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay) with the following parameters: frequency of 100 breaths/min, tidal volume (VT) of 0.2 ml, and fraction of inspired oxygen of 0.21. The anterior chest wall was surgically removed and a positive end-expiratory pressure

of 2 cm H2O applied. A laparotomy was performed and heparin (1000 IU) was intravenously injected in the vena cava. The trachea was clamped at end-expiration, and the abdominal aorta and vena cava were sectioned, yielding a massive hemorrhage that quickly killed the animals. The right lung was then removed, fixed in 3% buffered formaldehyde and paraffin embedded. Four-μm-thick slices were cut and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. Lung morphometry analysis was performed with an integrating eyepiece with a coherent system consisting of a grid with 100 points and 50 lines (known length) coupled to see more a conventional light microscope (Olympus BX51, Olympus Latin America-Inc., Brazil). The volume fractions of the lung occupied by collapsed alveoli (alveoli with rough or plicate walls), normal pulmonary areas or hyperinflated structures (alveolar ducts, alveolar sacs, or alveoli, all with maximal chord length in air >120 μm) were determined by the point-counting technique (Weibel, 1990) across 10 random, non-coincident microscopic fields. Briefly, points falling on collapsed, normal pulmonary areas

or hyperinflated structures were

counted and divided by the total number of points in each microscopic Megestrol Acetate field. Enlargement of air Ipatasertib manufacturer spaces was evaluated using mean linear intercept measurement (Lm) (Dunnill, 1964). The fraction of neutrophils and mononuclear cells was also evaluated. Collagen (Picrosirius-polarization method) and elastic fibers (Weigert’s resorcin fuchsin method with oxidation) (Fullmer et al., 1974) were quantified in alveolar septa and pulmonary vessel wall. Three slices of 2 mm × 2 mm × 2 mm were cut from three different segments of the left lung and fixed [2.5% glutaraldehyde and phosphate buffer 0.1 M (pH = 7.4)] for electron microscopy (JEOL 1010 Transmission Electron Microscope, Tokyo, Japan) analysis. For each lung electron microscopy image (20/animal), the following alterations were analyzed: (a) alveolar-capillary membrane damage, (b) type II pneumocyte lesion, (c) endothelial cell lesion, (d) neutrophil infiltration, (e) elastic fiber breakdown, (f) collagen fiber deposition, and (g) apoptotic cells (Abreu et al., 2011a). The pathologic findings were graded according to a 5-point semi-quantitative severity-based scoring system as: 0 = normal lung parenchyma, 1 = changes in 1–25%, 2 = changes in 26–50%, 3 = changes in 51–75%, and 4 = changes in 76–100% of examined tissue. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase biotin-dUTP nick end labeling staining was used to assay cellular apoptosis (Oliveira et al., 2009).