Figure 1. Effects of MGP on liver fibrosis in rats following DMN administration.

(A) Schematic illustration for in vivo experiments. Each Sprague-Dawley rat was either injected with DMN three times per week for three consecutive weeks (triangle) or injected with normal saline as a control under the same regime. Subsequently, MGP (400 µg/ml) was suspended in water and administered orally from day 8 until day 49 (black column). Rats were weighed and sacrificed 7 weeks after first DMN injection. (B) Survival analysis. The death of rats was recorded every week and used to calculate the survival rate. Livers were excised and fixed in formaldehyde for (C) histopathological examinations. The rat liver sections were stained with hematoxylin-eosin and Sirius red-Fast green. The original magnification was 40×. (D) Collagen content. The collagen areas were calculated in eight fields independently, and the extent of fibrosis in each field was expressed as the area of collagen as a percentage of the total area of the field. There was a significant difference between the DMN and the DMN+GP groups. (E) Hydroxyproline content. The level of hydroxyproline in the liver tissue was measured as described in the Materials and Methods section. Significance under p-values<0.05, 0.001 and 0.0001 are marked with *, ** and ***, respectively.