Fig. 1: CDE diet-induced liver injury is exacerbated in Cflar^LKO mice.

Eight-week-old female Cflar^FF and Cflar^LKO mice were fed the normal or CDE diet for 4 weeks. a Serum ALT concentrations were determined. Results are mean ± SE. n = 5 (normal diet) or n = 6 (CDE diet) mice. b Kinetics of relative body weight (%) changes. Results are mean ± SE. n = 5 (Cflar^FF and Cflar^LKO fed the normal diet), n = 8 (Cflar^FF fed the CDE diet), or n = 6 (Cflar^LKO fed the CDE diet) mice. c–g, j Liver sections from mice with the indicated genotypes fed the normal diet or CDE diet for 4 weeks were stained with H&E, anti-CC3 antibody, TUNEL, Sirius Red, anti-desmin and anti-CK19 antibodies, and Nile Red (n = 5 mice) (c). Scale bar, 100 μm. Red arrowheads indicate CC3⁺ or TUNEL⁺ cells. The number of CC3⁺ (d) and TUNEL⁺ (e) cells were counted and expressed as numbers of the field of view (FOV). The Sirius Red⁺ (f), desmin⁺ (g), and CK19⁺ (j) areas were quantified and are expressed as areas of FOV. Results are mean ± SE (n = 5 mice). The hydroxyproline content of the livers were determined (h). Results are mean ± SE. n = 5 (Cflar^FF and Cflar^LKO fed the normal diet), n = 4 (Cflar^FF fed the CDE diet), or n = 6 (Cflar^LKO fed the CDE diet) mice. The expression of profibrotic genes (i) and Krt19 (CK19) (k) in the livers was determined by qPCR. Results are mean ± SE (n = 5). Pooled results from four independent experiments are shown. Significance was determined by two-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparison test (a, d–k), two-tailed unpaired Student’s t test (b, left), or two-way ANOVA with Sidak’s multiple comparison test (b, right). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.