Bone morphogenetic protein-2 is a negative regulator of hepatocyte proliferation downregulated in the regenerating liver

Figure 1 By immunohistochemistry, BMP-2 is expressed predominantly in hepatocytes around the central vein and portal triad. Strong BMP-2 staining is seen localized to the cytoplasm of NC group (A). The strong BMP-2 staining seen in normal tissue is lost at 6,12 h group (B,C) and resumes at 48 h group (D) following PH. There was no significant change in SO group compared with NC group in BMP-2 immunoreactivity (data not shown). Control stainings were performed by omitting the primary antibody and using a control IgG2b that showed no staining. A known positive staining specimen was used as a positive control (data not shown). (A, B, C, and D x 200).