Figure 2

Photomicrographs for liver sections of mild liver fibrosis and cirrhosis groups stained with haematoxylin and eosin (H&E, X10) (A,B), Masson trichrome (MT, X10) (C,D) and Sirius red staining (SR,X10) (E&F), as well as immunohistochemical staining (immunostain, DAB, X40) of human albumin (G,H) and human α smooth muscle actin (αSMA) (I,J). In the H&E, MT and SR-stained sections, the fibrotic areas was significantly less with perivascular distribution and mild hepatic degeneration (arrow) and mononuclear cells infiltration in the mild fibrosis groups, where a marked fibrosis with cirrhotic nodules (arrows head), hepatocyte degeneration and loss of the hepatic architecture was observed in the cirrhotic group. As for the immunostained sections, Human albumin is shown in small clusters of polygonal (hepatocyte-like) cells with cytoplasmic expression. Note the higher expression in cirrhotic (H) vs. mild fibrosis (G), where for αSMA (I,J),human cells that stained positive for this marker are distributed perivascularly with thickened vessel walls (neointima formation).