Lung inflammation induces severe hemorrhage and anemia during thrombocytopenia. (A) Top: Postmortem analysis of lungs after intranasal LPS challenge. Massive pulmonary hemorrhage is observed in platelet-depleted lungs on the right. Bar = 5 mm. Middle: Bronchoalveolar lavage reveals red opaque fluid from depleted (dep) mice and not from control (co) mice with normal platelet count. Bottom: Lung sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin show massive RBC infiltration in airways and alveolar space of thrombocytopenic mice. Bar = 100 μm. (B) Significantly increased amounts of RBCs were found in the lavage of inflamed thrombocytopenic mice (P < .001; n = 5). Platelet depletion per se did not induce RBC loss into the lung. (C) Hemoglobin levels in whole blood of thrombocytopenic and control mice challenged in the lung inflammation model. Pulmonary hemorrhage is accompanied by a significant drop in hemoglobin levels in the thrombocytopenic animals. Error bars represent SEM.