Fig 3.
Loss of Smad7 protein function leads to enhanced inflammation and fibrogenesis as well as hepatocyte apopto-sis in a CCI4 model of liver damage in mice. Representative photomicrographs of liver sections from CD-1 and S7ΔE1 strains treated or not (control) for 8 weeks with CCI4: (a) Sirius red staining to semi-quantify collagen deposition; (c) α-smooth muscle actin immunostaining to detect activated HSCs; (e) immunostaining for cleaved caspase 3 to identify apoptotic cells; (g) immunostaining for CD43 to detect inflammatory cells; (b, d, f, h) Morphometric quantification of histochemical and immunohistochemical stagings. Ten fields were selected randomly from each section of different groups (8 animals/ group); for (b), Sirius red staining, LEICA QWIN software (Germany) was used. The graph shows the percentage of positive staining related to the total area investigated; for all other immunostainings (d, f, h), about 200 cells were evaluated per observation field, immunopositive cells were counted and data are expressed as percentage of total cell numbers investigated.