Fig 2. Hepatic stellate cells activation and proliferation in the livers of wild-type and NS3/4A-Tg mice after CCl₄ administration.

Representative pictures of (A) desmin- and (B) α-SMA-stained liver sections of 4-weeks and 8-weeks olive-oil treated and CCl₄-treated wild-type and NS/4A-Tg mice. Scale bars, 200μm (C) quantitative analysis of desmin- and α-SMA stained liver sections. (D) mRNA expression of desmin and α-SMA (normalized with GAPDH) in the livers of wild-type and NS3/4A-Tg. For quantitative histological and mRNA analysis, groups were normalized to olive-oil treated wild-type mice. Bars represent mean ± SEM of n = 5 per group. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; #p<0.05; ##p<0.01; n.s. denotes non-significant.