Fig. 8
Secondary transplantation of primary HLA-ABC-positive cells suppresses the activation of hepatic stellate cells and induction of Kupffer cells in livers CCl4-treated mice. a–c Expression of alpha smooth muscle actin (αSMA). a Immunohistochemical staining with anti-αSMA antibody in recipient livers. b αSMA-positive area. c Real-time RT-PCR analysis of mouse αSMA (mαSMA) mRNA. d Real-time RT-PCR analysis of mouse MMP9 and MMP2 (mMMP9, mMMP2) and mouse TIMP1 and TIMP2 (mTIMP1, mTIMP2) mRNA in recipient livers. b–d n = 5 for all groups. *P <0.05, **P <0.01, and ***P <0.005. ns no significance. Graph bars show the mean ± SD. Control, olive oil-injected group; CCl4, CCl4-treated group; CCl4 + HLA+, HLA+ cell-transplanted CCl4-treated group; CCl4 + HLA–, HLA– cell-transplanted CCl4-treated group. CCl 4 carbon tetrachloride, HLA human leukocyte antigen, MMP matrix metalloproteinase, TIMP tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase