Figure 1
From: Focal Adhesion Kinase Regulates Hepatic Stellate Cell Activation and Liver Fibrosis
FAK activation is increased in fibrotic liver tissues; increase FAK activation is associated with increased collagen and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression in fibrotic liver tissues. Mice were challenged by intraperitoneal injections of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) or control vehicle (Control, corn oil as the vehicle) as described in Materials and Methods. The severity of liver fibrosis was evaluated by using several measures, including (A) Masson’s trichrome staining of fibrotic areas (by collagen deposition, 100X), black arrow indicates the central vein, white arrow indicates the portal vein, right bottom shows a scale bar (100 µm). (B) Morphometric analysis of fibrotic lesions in liver, and (C) Hydroxyproline levels (for collagen levels) of livers from CCl4 or control vehicle challenged mice. (D) Equivalent amount of whole liver detergent lysates were western blotted for the phosphorylation of Y397 of FAK (FAK activation), α-smooth muscle active (α-SMA, a marker for myofibroblast differentiation), or procollagen 1α1 (Col 1). Each lane represents one individual mouse. GAPDH was used as a loading control. (E) Densitometry analysis of phosphorylation of Y397 of FAK (normalized to total FAK), and expression of α-SMA and procollagen 1α1 (Col 1). Data were pooled and represented as mean ± SE, n = 8 animals per group. *p < 0.01.
