Bone marrow learn more cells were extracted from male C57BL/6 (20–25 g, n = 10) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) transgenic

mice (20–22 g, n = 4) and administered on the day of collection. Briefly, under anaesthesia with ketamine (25 mg/kg) and xylazine (2 mg/kg) iv, bone marrow cells were aspirated from the femur and tibia by flushing the bone marrow cavity with Dulbecco’s modified Eagle’s medium (DMEM) (Life Technologies, Grand Island, NY, USA). After a homogeneous cell suspension was achieved, cells were centrifuged (400 × g for 10 min), resuspended in DMEM and added to Ficoll-Hypaque (Histopaque 1083, Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA). The isolated cells were counted in a Neubauer chamber with Trypan Blue for evaluation of viability. For the administration of saline or BMDMC, mice were anaesthetized with sevoflurane, the jugular vein of each mouse was dissected, and cells were slowly injected. A small aliquot of the mononuclear cells was used for immunophenotipic

characterization of the injected cell population. Cell characterization was performed by flow cytometry using antibodies CD45 (leukocyte), CD34 (hematopoietic precursors), CD3, CD8, and CD4 (T lymphocyte), CD14 (monocytes and macrophages), CD11b, CD29 and CD45− (non-hematopoietic precursors), all from BD Biosciences, USA. A total of 106 Cilengitide purchase female C57BL/6 mice (20–25 g) were used. Lung mechanics and histology as well as molecular biology were analyzed in 35 female C57BL/6 mice. The remaining 71 females were used to analyse the survival rate (n = 56) and the number of GFP+ cells in lung tissue (n = 15). All females were randomly assigned to two groups, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) or Sham. In CLP, polymicrobial sepsis was induced as previously described ( Chao et al., 2010). Briefly, animals were anaesthetized with sevoflurane and a midline laparotomy (2 cm incision) was performed. The cecum

was carefully isolated to prevent damage to blood vessels. A 3.0 cotton ligature was placed selleckchem below the ileocecal valve to prevent bowel obstruction. Finally, the cecum was punctured twice with an 18-gauge needle and the animals recovered from anaesthesia ( Chao et al., 2010). In the Sham group, the abdominal cavity was opened and the cecum was isolated without ligation and puncture. The postoperative period was similar in both cases, with animals receiving subcutaneous injections of 1 ml of warm (37 °C) normal saline with tramadol hydrochloride (20 μg/g body weight). At 1 h, the Sham and CLP groups were further randomized into subgroups receiving saline (0.05 ml, SAL) or BMDMC (2 × 106 cells/0.05 ml of saline) intravenously (iv) ( Fig. 1). In order to determine the survival rate, Sham-SAL, Sham-BMDMC, CLP-SAL and CLP-BMDMC (n = 14/group) animals were used. All mice had free access to water and food and were monitored during 7 days by the investigators.