Fig. 2. Therapeutic deletion of GARP in established disease alleviates fibrogenesis.

(A) Heat map of the genes with high expression in HSCs (signal intensity >500) and low expression in other liver-resident cells (signal intensity <100). Gene expression was determined by microarray analysis. (B) Bmp10 mRNA expression in liver-resident cells detected by qRT-PCR. (C) IF staining in the liver of Bmp10CreER^T2+/−Ai6 mice 12 days after last tamoxifen administration as analyzed by confocal microscopy. Zsgreen (green), desmin (red), nucleus (blue). Scale bar 100 μm. (D) Experimental design of induced GARP deletion during NASH diet-mediated liver fibrosis. (E) GARP and fibrotic gene expression in the liver of mice detected by qRT-PCR. (F) Representative images of Sirius red staining of mouse liver (left) and quantification of stained area (right). Scale bar 100 μm. (G) Representative images of IHC staining of α-SMA in the liver of mice (left) 8 weeks after NASH diet and quantification of stained area (right). Each data point represents a single mouse. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. Data in E-G are from one experiment representing at least two independent experiments with similar results. Unpaired t-test was used to compare two groups. *p<0.05;**p<0.01. NS, not significant.