Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α induces a tendency of differentiation and activation of rat hepatic stellate cells

Figure 3 Identification of hepatic stellate cells differentiation mediated by hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α expression. By reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting, the expression of differentiation functional genes of hepatocytes (A and B) and genes related to fibroblast cells (C) was detected in the AdHNF4α- and AdGFP-infected groups. The relative expression levels of the indicated factors were calculated by image density analysis normalized with β-actin. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01, HSC-T6/parental vs HSC-T6/AdHNF4α. HNF4α: Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α; HSCs: Hepatic stellate cells.