Fig. 6
Immunohistochemical staining of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in rat liver sections following serial administrations of CCl4 and after treatment with hADSC disc. A Staining for α-SMA was completely absent in the control livers treated with olive oil for 16 weeks. B Remarkable staining for α-SMA was present in the fibrotic areas of rat livers treated with CCl4 for 8 weeks (arrows). C At 16th week of CCl4 administration, enormous and obvious staining for α-SMA was present in the periphery of thick collagen fibers (arrows). D Treatment with hADSC disc for 8 weeks demonstrated significant reduction in staining for α-SMA in the fibrotic zone (arrows). The implanted hADSC disc is clearly visible at the bottom portion of the image. E Marked decrease in staining of α-SMA in the left lateral lobe, where the right lateral lobe is implanted with hADSC disc (arrows). A–C Original magnification, × 100. D, E Original magnification, × 40. F Quantification of the staining intensity of α-SMA as square microns. The intensity of α-SMA staining was quantified using Image-Pro Discovery software. The data are mean ± S.D. of 10 randomly selected microscopic fields from five rats per group