Figure 5
From: Bone marrow-derived stem cells ameliorate hepatic fibrosis by down-regulating interleukin-17
IL-17 is a key for BMSCs-mediated amelioration of liver injury induced by CCl 4 injection. After 6 weeks of CCl4 administration to induced liver injury, the mice were randomly divided into several groups and were given a tail vein injection of BMSCs (5 × 106 cells in 0.2 ml PBS), a intraperitoneal injection of rmIL-17, a intraperitoneal injection of rmIL-17 and a tail vein injection of BMSCs, and five intraperitoneal injections of anti-mouse IL-17 mAb, respectively. Then the mice continued to be given CCl4 injection during our study to maintain liver fibrotic status. One group mice were only given CCl4 injection during the whole study and served as control. (A) Liver inflammatory (upper panels arrowhead) and hepatic collagen deposition (lower panels arrowhead) were determined by H&E and Sirius red staining. Original magnifications: left panels × 100, right panels × 40. (B) The percentage of stained red area of Sirius red was assessed at 100 × magnification with a quantitative image analyzer. (C) Serum chemistry of liver function was performed for albumin (ALB). The expressions of alpha- smooth muscle actin (SMA) (D) and collagen-1 (E) mRNA in liver tissues were measured by real time (RT)-PCR. (F) The plasma IL-17 level was analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results represent means and standard deviation (SD) of at least five mice per group. BMSCs, bone marrow-derived stem cells. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.