Fig. 10. [¹⁸F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([¹⁸F]FDG) uptake rate in test lungs (data points connected by  solid line ) and control lungs (data points connected by  dotted line ) versus circulating neutrophil count in the last animal of the negative end-expiratory pressure group (  rightmost pair of data points, corresponding to the  filled hexagons in  fig. 8A) and in two animals submitted to the negative end-expiratory pressure injury protocol after either moderate or severe systemic neutrophil depletion. Note the progressive, marked reduction of [¹⁸F]FDG uptake with decreasing blood neutrophils in the test lungs. Minimal reduction is observed in the control lungs. Note, however, that even with virtually complete neutrophil depletion (  leftmost pair of data points), [¹⁸F]FDG uptake rate remained higher in the test than in the control lung, suggesting that other cell types may have also been activated by injurious ventilation and contributed to the [¹⁸F]FDG signal.