Expression of toll-like receptor 4 and MD-2 gene and protein in Kupffer cells after ischemia-reperfusion in rat liver graft

Figure 1 Expression of TLR4 and MD-2 mRNA by RT-PCR analysis. A: PCR products were electrophoresed on agarose gels and photographed. B: Quantitative data of mRNA levels were shown as the ratio of relative absorbance and expressed as mean ± SD. Expression of TLR4 and MD-2 mRNA were sig-nificantly increased in the IR group compared with the con-trol group (P < 0.01).

Figure 2 Percentage of TLR4 and MD-2 positive cells. The percentage of TLR4 and MD-2 positive cells was significantly increased after IR compared with the control group.

Figure 3 Comparison of TNF-α production in supernatant of KCs. In IR group, the TNF-α level in supernatant was in-creased with time, and reached the maximum (529.1 ± 30.9 ng/mL) at 12 h. But in anti-TLR4 group, the production of TNF-α was obviously inhibited by Ab against TLR4 compared with the IR group (P < 0.01).