Fig. 3: Blocking miR-181a-5p in HSCs strengthens liver regeneration in fibrotic PHx model mice.

a A schematic diagram of the application of an AAV6-miR-181a-5p inhibitor to determine whether miR-181a-5p can modulate the expression of HGF in HSCs and affect the regeneration of the fibrotic liver. b Serum ALT, AST and LDH levels in different treatment groups (n = 4 independent biological mouse samples). c The ratio of LW/BW in different treatment groups (n = 4 independent biological mouse samples). d The representative images of H&E-stained samples from different treatment groups. 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 = 4 independent biological mouse samples). f, g The representative images (f) and quantification (g) of Ki67 immunohistochemical staining in different treatment groups. Scale bar, 100 μm (n = 4 independent biological mouse samples). h Western blotting (left) and relative quantification (right) showing the expression of PCNA in different treatment groups (n = 3 independent experiments). i, j RT‒qPCR (i) and representative western blotting (j, left) results showing the expression of HGF in HSCs isolated from different treatment groups and a quantification of HGF protein levels (j, right) (n = 3 independent experiments). 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.