Fig. 5: The impact of MT1-MMP.

a Overexpression of human MT1-MMP. Male C57BL/6J mice were injected with empty or the wild-type MT1-MMP adenoviruses (5 mice per group). Liver homogenate was subject to immunoblotting, followed by quantification of LDLR levels relative to actin in the same mouse. Representative images were shown. Similar results were obtained from other mice. Plasma levels of HDL (b) and non-HDL cholesterol (c) (4 mice per group). d Effect of the Western-type diet (6 mice per group). Mice were fed the Western-type diet for 8 weeks. Liver homogenate was subjected to immunoblotting. Relative densitometry of LDLR was determined as described. Actin was used as a loading control. Representative images were shown. Similar results were obtained from the other mice. Liver section staining. Representative figures and quantification (ImageJ 1.52S) of Masson’s Trichrome (e) and oil Red-O staining (f) in cross-sections of the liver (6 mice per group). Similar results were obtained from the other mice (magnification: 400×). Plasma levels of cholesterol content in HDL (g) and non-HDL (h) (4 mice per group). i Lipid profile. Same amount of plasma from each mouse in the same group (2 female and 2 male mice per group) was pooled and applied to FPLC analysis of plasma cholesterol. Student’s t test (two-sided) was carried out to determine the significant differences between groups (a–h). The significance was defined as p < 0.05. Values of all data were mean ± SD. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.