Figure 2. Liver-specific Mfsd2a deficiency resulted in development of severe steatohepatitis and fibrosis.
(A) Immunoblot showing the expression of Mfsd2a in 2afl/fl and its absence in L2aKO mouse liver (n = 6 per genotype). β-Actin was used as a loading control. Arrows indicate Mfsd2a, which appears in the liver as 2 distinct molecular weight species due to glycosylation (45). (B) Feeding regimen for mice on NASH diet. (C) Histological analysis was performed on liver sections following 16 weeks of NASH diet feeding using H&E, Sirius red, α-SMA, and galectin-3. Scale bars: 50 μm. (D) Morphometry analysis quantified the percentages of area that were positively stained for each of the indicated markers (2afl/fl, n = 8; L2aKO, n = 11). Data are represented as means ± SEM. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01, 2-tailed Welch’s t test.