Figure 3 | Scientific Reports

Figure 3

From: Hepatic stellate cells in zone 1 engage in capillarization rather than myofibroblast formation in murine liver fibrosis

Figure 3

Lineage tracing of zone 1-HSC. (a) SMMHC-tdTomato reporter mice were injected with tamoxifen (tam) on 5 consecutive days to induce the expression of the fluorescent dye tdTomato under control of the SMMHC promoter (SMMHC-tdTomato); controls did not receive tamoxifen. Mice were sacrificed at the indicated days after the last tamoxifen injection. Livers were then isolated, fixed and analyzed for tdTomato fluorescence. (b) Number of tdTomato-positive zone 1-HSC (red) become visible at around day10 and increase in number until day30. Note that zone 1-HSC remain in the portal area and do rarely cross into central zones even up to 1 year after tamoxifen induction. Bright field is used to show tissue structure. (c) Quantitative analysis of tdTomato-positive area without tamoxifen and tamoxifen at day10, day30 and day360. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM (ns, not significant; *** p < 0.0001). Asterisks indicate central veins.

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