FIG. 2.

Adult-onset hepatocyte Bmal1 depletion sensitizes mice to ethanol-induced fatty liver and liver injury. Eight-week-old mice were injected with either adenovirus expressing shRNA targeting Bmal1 (Ad-shBmal1, n =8) or Ad-shLacZ control (n =5) at MOI 1×10¹² pfu, fed 5% ethanol diet for 10 days and then binged with ethanol (5 g/kg body weight) at ZT 3 of the eleventh day and were dissected 9 hours later. Liver samples were subjected to triglyceride assay (A), H&E staining and Nile Red staining (B) to assess hepatic lipid accumulation, ALT assay to assess liver injury (C), TUNEL staining and caspase3 immuno-staining to assess apoptosis (D), and Western analysis of apoptotic markers (E). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 by two-tailed Student’s t test. Scale bar = 100 uM.