Adult human liver slice cultures: Modelling of liver fibrosis and evaluation of new anti-fibrotic drugs

Figure 10  By real-time reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, significantly increase of TGF-β1 protein and RNA expression of fibrosis biomarkers HSP47, α-SMA, MMP- 2, MMP-9, VEGF increased in non-infected or hepatitis C virus-infected liver slice cultures from stages F0-F1 to stage F4 treated with 25 mmol/L of ethanol. A and B: TGF-β1 intracellular protein expression (pg/mg protein) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (A) and hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected (B) liver slice (LS), treated with 25 mmol/L of ethanol (EtOH); C and D: Relative HSP47 RNA expression (relative RNA expression/mg tissue) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (C) and HCV infected (D) LS treated with 25 mmol/L of EtOH; E and F: Relative α-SMA RNA expression (relative RNA expression / mg tissue) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (E) and HCV-infected (F) LS treated with 25 mmol/L of EtOH; G and H: Relative MMP-2 RNA expression (relative RNA expression / mg tissue) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (G) and HCV-infected (H) LS cultures treated with 25 mmol/L of EtOH; I and J: Relative MMP-9 RNA expression (relative RNA expression / mg tissue) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (I) and HCV-infected (J) LS treated with 25 mmol/L of EtOH; K and L: Relative VEGF RNA expression (relative RNA expression/mg tissue) during the 21 days follow up kinetics, in F0-F1 to F4 non-infected (K) and HCV-infected (L) LS cultures treated with 25 mmol/L of EtOH. Values are expressed as mean ± SEMs (F0-F1: n = 5; F2-F3, n = 2; F4, n = 2). ^kP < 0.0001 subject vs control (F0-F1); ^jP < 0.001 subject vs control (F0-F1); ⁱP < 0.01 subject vs control (F0-F1), ^hP < 0.05 subject vs control (F0-F1) (two-way ANOVA test).