Fig. 5

Inhibition of galectins expression in HSCs impaired the clonal expansion of co-cultured hepatic stem cells. a, b Gene and protein expression of galectin-1 and -3 in HSCs by qPCR (a) and western blotting (b) analysis 72 h after the transfection with siNC (negative control), siGal-1, siGal-3, and siGal-1&3. c–f Representative images of the clonal expansion of hepatic stem cells (c), H-CFU-C frequency (d), H-CFU-C size (e), and total cell amount (f) after 3 days co-culture with HSCs pre-treated with siNC, siGal-1, siGal-3, and siGal-1&3 (n = 4, compared with siNC). Scale bar, 200 μm (c, upper) and 2 mm (c, lower). Data are shown as means ± SD. ^*P < 0.05, ^**P < 0.01. ns, no significance; HSCs, hepatic stellate cells; H-CFU-C, hepatic colony-forming units in culture