Fig. 3.

Apoptosis of BECs in AIC mice. Male and female mice were immunized with 2-OA-OVA or normal saline. Three weeks post-immunization, apoptosis of BECs in the liver tissues of mice was measured by TUNEL assay. (A) Representative images of TUNEL assay of liver histopathology (1000× magnification, scale bar, 10 μm). The liver section was triple labeled for apoptotic cells (green), biliary cytokeratin CK-19 (red), and nuclei DAPI (blue). (B) Thirty intrahepatic small bile ducts were counted in each slide to calculate the frequency of bile ducts with TUNEL-positive cells. M, male mice; F, female mice. Symbols represent one individual mouse, and bars indicate mean ± SEM. n = 6–9 mice per group. ***, p < 0.001; ****, p < 0.0001 (two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's multiple comparison test).