Fig. 4: Global or liver-specific Prom1 deficiency enhanced TGFβ1 signaling in the liver.
From: Hepatocyte-specific Prominin-1 protects against liver injury-induced fibrosis by stabilizing SMAD7
A–D Eight-week-old male wild-type (WT), global Prom1-knockout (KO), Prom1f/f (f/f), and Prom1f/f; Alb-Cre (f/f; Alb-Cre) mice were subjected to sham surgery (n = 3) or BDL (n = 7–9) for 1 week. A Each liver specimen was analyzed by immunoblotting for PROM1, p-SMAD2/3, total SMAD2/3, SMAD4, SMAD7, αSMA, cleaved Caspase-3, and GAPDH. Prom1f/f (f/f) and Prom1f/f; Alb-Cre (f/f; Alb-Cre) mice are shown in the left panel. Wild-type (WT) and global Prom1 knockout (KO) cells are shown in the right panel. B Band intensities of p-SMAD2/3, αSMA, SMAD7, and cleaved Caspase-3 in the livers of f/f and f/f; Alb-Cre mice subjected to BDL were statistically analyzed after normalization to the band intensity of GAPDH. C Liver specimens from f/f and f/f; Alb-Cre mice were analyzed by immunofluorescence analysis of p-SMAD2/3 and SMAD7 and the TUNEL assay. D The mRNA levels of Smad7 from liver specimens from f/f and f/f; Alb-Cre mice were determined by RT–qPCR and normalized to those of 18S rRNA. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, n.s; nonsignificant. All data are the mean ± S.E.M. TUNEL, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT)-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling.
