Fig. 1.
Effect of ALR on (A) hepatic regeneration, (B) mRNA expression of cytokines and iNOS, and (C) expression of iNOS protein after 40% hepatectomy. A: Photomicrographs show BrDU-labeled cells in saline- or ALR-treated rats, while bar graph shows BrDU-labeled cells/power field. *P<0.05 versus saline. B: RNA was extracted from frozen livers and expression levels of various mRNAs were determined via real-time PCR. Bar graph shows mRNA expression relative to that of sham control. *P < 0.05 versus sham; **P < 0.001 versus sham; ***P < 0.01 versus sham; *P < 0.05 versus saline. C: The formalin-fixed liver sections were immunostained with anti-iNOS (top parts) or anti-ED2 antibody (bottom parts). Staining for iNOS in much greater number sinusoidal cells (arrows) with higher intensity in ALR-treatment group can be seen as compared to the vehicle (saline)-treated group (magnification 20×); inset shows iNOS staining at higher magnification (100×). The number of ED2-positive cells is similar in the two groups (magnification 10×). [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.]