Fig. 3: Hepatic neddylation deficiency promotes hepatocyte damage and excessive fetal liver reprogramming.

a Representative EBD staining and quantification of total EBD⁺ areas (n = 3 per group, *P = 0.0255); b representative TUNEL labeling and quantification of TUNEL⁺ cells (n = 5 per group, **P < 0.0001) in livers of AAV-GFP (GFP) and AAV-Cre (Cre) mice at D24 post virus injections. Scale bar: 50 µm. Unpaired t-tests, two-tailed in (a, b). c Representative Western blot in liver extracts of GFP and Cre mice at D21 and D24 post-virus injections (n = 4 per group). d Relative mRNA levels of mature hepatocyte markers and BEC/ progenitor-specific markers in livers as determined by qRT-PCR (n = 5). Multiple unpaired t-tests with the Holm-Sidak method. *P < 0.05. e Representative immunofluorescence staining for HNF4a and KRT19 in liver sections. Scale bar: 50–100 µm. CV, central vein; PV, portal vein. f Representative immunofluorescence staining for Ki67 and Albumin (ALB). The numbers of Ki67⁺ (**P < 0.0001) and Ki67⁺/ALB⁺ (*P = 0.049) cells were quantified and normalized to the total numbers of DAPI-stained nuclei, respectively (n = 3 per group). Unpaired t-tests, two-tailed. All experiments in (d–f) were performed in the livers of male GFP and Cre mice at D24 post-virus injections. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.005. All quantitative data were presented as mean ± SEM. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.