Figure 5.

Parenchymal injury and inflammatory markers in SerpinB3 transgenic (SB3-TG) mice and wild type (WT) mice following chronic (10 weeks) CCl₄ administration or 4 weeks feeding with a methionine/choline deficient (MCD) diet. (a) Liver morphology in mice exposed to CCl₄ or the MCD diet was evaluated by hematoxylin/eosin staining (magnification 10X). Parenchymal injury, estimated by measuring the circulating levels of alanine (ALT) and aspartate (AST) aminotransferases and liver expression of inflammatory markers TNF-α and CD11c, evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR (Q-PCR), are reported in CCl₄ treated mice (b) and in MCD fed mice (c). Data in graphs are expressed as means ± SD (n = 6 mice for each experimental group) (*p < 0.01 vs the relative control mice; ^§p < 0.05 vs WT-mice receiving CCl₄ or the MCD diet).