Figure 4

Recruitment of normal and IPF fibroblasts into epithelial scratch wounds. The number of NHLFs or IPF fibroblasts invading epithelial wounds was quantified per HPF by employing immunofluorescent staining. A549 cells were identified as e-cadherin/DAPI positive cells; fibroblasts were identified as vimentin/DAPI or α-SMA/DAPI positive cells. (A) The number of vimentin/DAPI positive fibroblasts from normal donors (NHLF) populating into the A549 scratch wound was significantly greater than those from donors suffering with IPF (IPF) in comparable culture conditions. (B) This was further demonstrated by α-SMA/DAPI positive fibroblasts in separate experiments and showed similar trends as seen in (A). *P <0.05, **P <0.01, ***P <0.001 compared with A549-NHLF.