Nerve growth factor involvement in liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma

Figure 4 NGF distribution in cirrhotic tissue from patient also suffering from HCC. B, C, D, G, H, I, M, J, K: Confocal microscopy images of immuno-stained sections showing NGF immunoreaction (red hue) in the cytoplasm of some hepatocytes, on biliary epithelial cells and on spindle-shaped cells; no immunoreaction is observed in controls performed by substitution of primary antisera with non-immune rabbit serum. J, K: Double staining on spindle-shaped cells using anti-NGF and antibody against the myofibroblast marker smooth muscle actin (SMA); A, L: Images of H&E staining; E, F: Images of semithin sections from samples embedded in Spurr epoxy resin. Differently coloured arrows indicate the different cell types (see legend). bec: biliary epithelial cells; n: nucleus; hep: hepatocyte; ssc: spindle-shaped cells.