Fc-apelin fusion protein attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced liver injury in mice

Figures

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  Figure 1. Effect of Fc-apelin on serum ALT and IL-6 in LPS-treated mice. (A) Effect on ALT (B) Effect on IL-6. Mice were administered with PBS (Cont) or Fc-apelin (1 mg/kg) with or without LPS (1 mg/kg) daily for five days. Data are expressed as mean + SE; ***P < 0.001 (n = 9 mice/group).

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  Figure 2. Fc-apelin prevents LPS-induced apoptosis. TUNEL assay was used to assess apoptosis of liver tissue sections (A) of mice receiving PBS, Fc-apelin (1 mg/kg) and/or LPS were assessed by TUNEL assay for apoptosis or Huh-7 cells (B) which were treated with PBS/albumin (Cont) or Fc-apelin (0.5 μM) with or without LPS (1 μg/ml) for 12 hours. Green staining indicates apoptotic cells and DAPI staining was used to visualize nuclei (low panel). The representative images are presented and data (C) are expressed as mean + SE; n = 5; ***p < 0.001and n.s.: no significance.

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  Figure 3. Detection of ROS in mouse livers by DHE staining. (A, upper panel) Liver tissue sections of mice receiving PBS, Fc-apelin (1 mg/kg) and/or LPS were stained with DHE and the fluorescence intensity was quantified by fluorescence microscope. (A, lower panel) Huh-7 cells were pre-treated with PBS/albumin (Cont) or Fc-apelin (0.5 μM) for 30 min and then with or without LPS (1 μg/ml) for one hour. The cells were incubated with DHE for 20 min and quantified by microscopy. (B) Quantification of ROS production was done by measuring fluorescence intensity by Image J. Data are expressed as mean + SE; n = 5; ***p < 0.001and n.s.: no significance.

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  Figure 4. Fc-apelin ameliorates LPS-induced liver damage and inflammation responses. (A) Representative H/E staining and immunohistochemistry of macrophage marker F4/80 of liver sections. (B) Quantification of F4/80 + cells per view (200 x magnification). Quantitative PCR (qPCR) of gene expression for TNFα (C) and IL-6 (D). Gene expression is normalized with β-actin. Data are expressed as mean + SE; n = 5 for microphage infiltration analyses and n = 8 for qPCR; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001 and n.s.: no significance.