Cathepsin B inactivation attenuates hepatic injury and fibrosis during cholestasis
J. Clin. Invest. Ali Canbay, et al. 112:152 doi:10.1172/JCI17740 [Go to this article.]

Figure 3
Neutrophilic infiltration and chemokine expression are increased in Ctsb^+/+ compared with Ctsb^–/– and R-3032–treated Ctsb^+/+ BDL mice. Fixed liver specimens from mice were stained for MPO, a neutrophil marker. Neutrophil infiltration was present only in Ctsb^+/+ BDL mice (a) (original magnification ×20). Three days after the surgical procedure, liver tissue was procured and total hepatic RNA was isolated as described in Methods. (b and c) MIP-2 and KC expression was quantitated by real-time PCR. The expression was normalized as a ratio using GAPDH mRNA as a housekeeping gene. A value of 1 for this ratio was arbitrarily assigned to the data obtained from sham-operated Ctsb^+/+ mice. KC mRNA expression in Ctsb^+/+ BDL was higher than in Ctsb^–/– (P < 0.0001) and R-3032–treated Ctsb^+/+ BDL mice (P < 0.0001, n = 4 for each group). The expression of MIP-2 mRNA was greater in Ctsb^+/+ than in Ctsb^–/– (P < 0.0001) and R-3032–treated Ctsb^+/+ BDL mice (P < 0.0001, n = 4 for each group).