Fig. 2: Inhibition of MAIT cell activation blocks liver fibrosis progression and promotes fibrosis regression.
From: MAIT cell inhibition promotes liver fibrosis regression via macrophage phenotype reprogramming
a Timeline of the CCl4-induced fibrosis progression protocol in C57BL/6 J mice. b Representative images and quantification of Sirius red (SR; ***p = 0.0002) and α-SMA-positive areas (***p = 0.0006) in liver tissue sections (n = 8 mice/group). c Timeline of the CDAA-HFD-induced fibrosis regression protocol in C57BL/6 J mice. Representative images and quantification of Sirius red areas in liver tissue sections at day 1 (n = 5 mice/group) and day 8 (n = 8 mice/group). *p = 0.02; **p = 0.0016. d Timeline of the CCl4-induced fibrosis regression protocol in C57BL/6 J and MR1−/− mice. Representative images and quantification of Sirius red areas in liver tissue sections from C57BL/6 J (n = 8 mice/group) and MR1−/− mice (n = 5 mice/group) at days 1 and 4. **p = 0.002. e Flow cytometry analysis of CD4−CD8−GFP+ MAIT cell frequency in CCl4-exposed B6-MAITCAST mice injected with Ac-6-FP or vehicle (pooled data from three experiments n = 22 mice in vehicle group and 25 mice in Ac-6-FP group at day 1; n = 13 mice/group at day 2; n = 19 mice for vehicle and 21 mice for Ac-6-FP at day 4). Oil-injected mice served as control (pooled data from 7 experiments n = 36 mice). f Intracellular staining of CD4−CD8−GFP+ MAIT cells for TNFα and IL17 after 4 h intrahepatic leukocyte stimulation with PMA/ionomycin and Brefeldin A. Pooled data from 3 experiments for TNFα at day 1 (n = 16 mice for oil, n = 14 mice for vehicle and n = 18 mice for Ac-6-FP; *p = 0.04, **p = 0.003), and from 2 experiments for IL17 (n = 9 for oil, n = 11 for vehicle and n = 12 for Ac-6-FP; *p = 0.03, **p = 0.004). g Representative images and quantification of Sirius red areas in liver tissue sections from B6-MAITCAST congenic mice daily injected either with Ac-6-FP or vehicle (n = 7 mice/group; ***p = 0.0006), anti-MR1 or isotype (n = 5 mice/group at day 1, n = 8 at day 4; ***p = 0.0002). a, c, d Timelines of injections were created with BioRender® software. Representative images were taken at ×10 magnification. Scale bar is 100 µm. Data are mean ± S.D. Statistical analysis was performed by two-tailed Mann–Whitney test. SR sirius red, CDAA-HFD choline-deficient l-amino-acid defined high-fat diet, PMA phorbol 12-meristate 13-acetate. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
