Previous study showed that aerosolized signal transducer and activator of transcription-1 (STAT1) antisense oligodeoxynucleotide (ASON) inhibited the expression of STAT1 and ICAM-1 mRNA and protein in alveolar macrophages (AMs) and decreased the concentrations of TGF-beta, PDGF and TNF-alpha in bronchioalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in bleomycin (BLM)-induced rat pulmonary fibrosis.
To determine whether the absence of expression of VCAM-1, ICAM-1, or other adhesion molecules known to be relevant to inflammatory cell attachment to lung endothelial cells was associated with a decrease in irradiation-induced lung fibrosis, homozygous deletion recombinant knockout mice lacking each of several adhesion molecules were tested compared to littermates for survival and development of organizing alveolitis following 20 Gy irradiation to both lungs.