Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2020 Nov 5;218(3):e20200882. doi: 10.1084/jem.20200882

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© 2020 Lee et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms/). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 International license, as described at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).

PMC Copyright notice

Figure 2. — Endothelial cells and hepatic stellate cells are the major sources of SCF in the developing liver. (A) Scf-GFP was expressed by rare CD45⁻Ter119⁻ nonhematopoietic cells in the P0 liver (n = 7 mice for control, and n = 13 mice for Scf^gfp/+). (B) The majority of CD45⁻Ter119⁻CD31⁺ endothelial cells in the P0 liver expressed Scf-GFP (n = 5 mice for control, and n = 12 mice for Scf^gfp/+). (C) Scf-GFP was also expressed by CD31⁻ nonendothelial stromal cells (n = 13 mice for Scf^gfp/+). CD45⁻Ter119⁻Scf-GFP⁺ cells are shown. (D) qRT-PCR revealed that CD45⁻Ter119⁻CD31⁻Scf-GFP⁺ cells had significantly higher expression of Desmin, Lrat, Lhx2, Pdgfrα, and Cxcl12 compared with P0 whole liver cells [WL], hematopoietic cells, or endothelial cells (n = 5 for whole liver cells, n = 4 for CD45⁻Ter119⁻CD31⁻Scf-GFP⁺ cells, n = 3 for CD45⁺ or Ter119⁺ hematopoietic cells [Hema], and n = 3 for CD45⁻Ter119⁻CD31⁺ endothelial cells [Endo]). (E–I) Cxcl12-DsRed was expressed by Desmin⁺ cells in the P0 liver. Nuclei were stained with DAPI, in blue. I is an inset of the selected area in H. Roman numerals i–iv indicate individual channels and merged images. (J) Quantification of DsRed⁺Desmin⁺ cells and DsRed⁺Desmin⁻ cells from Cxcl12^DsRed/+ P0 liver tissue sections. About 98% of DsRed⁺ cells were Desmin⁺. Three representative confocal images from two independent experiments were used for quantification. (K) The majority of P0 liver CD45⁻Ter119⁻Cxcl12-DsRed⁺ stromal cells were vitamin A⁺ (VitA; n = 5 mice for Cxcl12^DsRed/+). (L) The majority of P0 liver CD45⁻Ter119⁻Cxcl12-DsRed⁺ stellate cells expressed Scf-GFP in Scf^gfp/+; Cxcl12^DsRed/+ mice (n = 4 mice for control, and n = 7 mice for Scf^gfp/+; Cxcl12^DsRed/+). (M) The majority of P0 liver CD45⁻Ter119⁻CD31⁻Scf-GFP⁺ stromal cells were Cxcl12-DsRed⁺ (n = 3 mice for control, and n = 7 mice for Scf^gfp/+; Cxcl12^DsRed/+). (N) Scf transcript levels in distinct cell populations of P0 liver as quantified by qRT-PCR (n = 3 for WL, n = 3 for Hema, n = 3 for Endo, n = 3 for CD45⁻Ter119⁻Cxcl12-DsRed⁺ stellate cells [DsRed], n = 4 for CD45⁻Ter119⁻tdTomato⁺ hepatocyte lineage cells from Albumin-cre; loxp-tdTomato mice [Hepato], and n = 3 for NG2⁺). All data represent mean ± SD. Two-tailed Student’s t tests were used to evaluate statistical significance. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01. Scale bars are 50 µm in H and 10 µm in I.