Fig. 1: IFN-γ+ Vγ4 cells play a protective role in CCl4-induced liver fibrosis.
a–g Wild-type (WT), TCRδ-/- or TCRδ-/- mice reconstituted with 5 × 105 γδ T cells or Vγ1 or Vγ4 cells, and repetitive CCl4 were challenged twice weekly for 4 weeks (n = 5–8/group; 3 replicates). a Representative liver histology of H&E, Sirius Red staining and Masson’s Trichrome staining (bar = 500 μm). b Sirius Red staining and Masson’s Trichrome staining were quantified by ImageJ (National Institutes of Health, MD, USA) analysis, counted in ten different fields for each sample, two samples from each mouse, and presented as fold change compared with the control. c Hydroxyproline content in liver tissues. d Serum ALT and AST levels. e, f Representative western bolt images and quantitative analysis of α-SMA expression in liver tissues. g qRT-PCR analysis of the relative expression of Col1α1, Acta2, TIMP-1 and MMP-9 in liver tissues. h–n WT, TCRδ−/− or TCRδ−/− mice reconstituted with 5 × 105 WT Vγ4 or IFN-γ-/- Vγ4 or IL-17-/- Vγ4 cells, and repetitive CCl4 were challenged twice weekly for 4 weeks (n = 6/group; 3 replicates). h Representative liver histology of H&E, Sirius Red staining and Masson’s Trichrome staining (bar = 500 μm). i Sirius Red staining and Masson’s Trichrome staining were quantified by ImageJ. j Hydroxyproline content in liver tissues. k Serum ALT and AST levels. l, m Representative western bolt images and quantitative analysis of α-SMA expression in liver tissues. n qRT-PCR analysis of the relative expression of Col1α1, Acta2, TIMP-1 and MMP-9 in mouse liver. H&E hematoxylin and eosin, ALT alanine aminotransferase, CCl4 carbon tetrachloride, qRT-PCR quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, WT wild-type. Data are presented as the mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001 in comparison with the corresponding controls, by unpaired Student’s t-test between two groups or one-way ANOVA for comparison of two or multiple groups, respectively.
