Fig. 1: Liver regeneration is weakened in fibrotic mice.
a A schematic diagram of the preparation of a mouse hepatic fibrotic model through CCl4 treatment followed by two-thirds PHx. b Serum ALT, AST and LDH levels at the indicated time points after PHx (n = 4 independent biological mouse samples). c LW/BW ratios at the indicated time points after PHx (n = 4 independent biological mouse samples). d The representative images of H&E-stained samples at the indicated time points after PHx. Scale bar, 50 μm. e A quantification of the mitotic frequency determined by counting the numbers of mitotic nuclei and total nuclei in randomly selected fields (n = 3 independent experiments). f, g The representative images (f) and quantification (g) of Ki67 immunohistochemical staining at the indicated time points after PHx. Scale bar, 100 μm (n = 3 independent experiments). h, Western blotting (left) and relative quantification (right) of PCNA protein expression at the indicated time points after PHx in liver tissues (n = 3 independent biological mouse samples). i RT‒qPCR analysis of the levels of HGF and TGF-β in HSCs isolated from the PHx model (n = 4 independent cell experiments). j Western blotting (left) and relative quantification (right) showing the expression of HGF and TGF-β in HSCs isolated from the PHx model (n = 3 independent experiments). k–m In vitro experiments include: RT‒qPCR analysis of HGF in the LX-2 HSC line (n = 3 independent cell experiments) (k) western blotting (left) and relative quantification (right) showing the expression of HGF in the LX-2 HSC line (n = 3 independent cell experiments) (l) and ELISA results showing the HGF levels in LX-2 HSC line culture medium (n = 3 independent cell experiments) (m). The statistical data are presented as mean ± s.d., and the error bars represent the means of three independent experiments or four independent biological mouse samples. Statistical significance was determined by a Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001. n.s., no significance.
