Figure 7. TSLP protects against liver I/R injury via PI3K/Akt pathway.

(A) Western blot showing the levels of total and phosphorylated Akt in liver of TSLPR^–/– mice after liver I/R injury (I: 1 hour; R: 6 hours) with PBS or Akt agonist insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) (2 doses, 100 μg/kg/dose, subcutaneous injection, one dose starting immediately before surgical procedure, another dose starting immediately after reperfusion) treatment. (B) Serum ALT levels of TSLPR^–/– mice after liver I/R injury with PBS or IGF-1 treatment. ***P < 0.001. (C) Representative H&E staining images (×20) and necrotic areas of ischemic liver lobes of TSLPR^–/– mice at 6 hours after reperfusion with PBS or IGF-1 treatment. Dotted lines indicate measured areas of necrosis, quantified in the bar graph. **P < 0.01. In A–C, n = 8 in PBS group, n = 5 in IGF-1 group. (D) Western blot showing the levels of total and phosphorylated Akt in liver of WT mice after liver I/R injury with PBS or LY294002 plus PBS or LY294002 plus rTSLP treatment (LY294002 [0.5 mg/kg] was administered i.p. 30 minutes before surgery; PBS and rTSLP [2 μg/mouse] were administered i.p. immediately after reperfusion). (E) Serum ALT levels of WT mice after liver I/R injury with LY294002 plus PBS or LY294002 plus rTSLP treatment. (F) Representative H&E staining images (×20) and necrotic areas of ischemic liver lobes of WT mice at 6 hours after reperfusion with LY294002 plus PBS or LY294002 plus rTSLP treatment. Dotted lines indicate measured areas of necrosis, quantified in on the bar graph. In D–F, n = 6 per group. (G) Western blot showing the levels of total Akt, phosphorylated Akt, and LC3 in liver of WT mice after liver I/R injury with PBS or LY294002 plus PBS or rTSLP treatment. The Western blots shown are representative of 3 experiments with similar results. All data are shown as the mean ± SEM. P values by unpaired, 2-tailed Student’s t test (B, C, E, and F). NS, no significance.