Fig. 5.

Depletion of hepatic CD8⁺ T cells reduces liver macrophage populations and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) expression in obesity/hyperlipidemia-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) mice. LDLR^−/− mice were placed on Western diet (WD) for 8 wks and injected weekly with IgG or anti-CD8 antibody throughout the duration of the diet. Mice were euthanized and livers isolated for subsequent analysis. A: flow analysis and quantification of hepatic CD8⁺TCRβ⁺ and CD11b⁺F4/80⁺ cells. B: Il10, Tnf, Il2, and Il6 gene expression in total liver. C: extracellular matrix markers, Tgfb1, Ch25h, Acta2, Timp1, and Col1a1 gene expression in total liver. D: immunofluorescence of liver sections stained with CD8 (55), α-SMA (11), and DAPI (blue) at ×40. Data are means ± SE of n = 10–12 mice per group. Data analysis: unpaired Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05 compared with IgG control group; **P < 0.01; ****P < 0.0001.