The paraffin-embedded liver tissue sections were dewaxed and rehydrated, and after the antigen retrieval, the sections were permeabilized with Triton X-100 and incubated with primary antibodies against
α-SMA (Boster, Wuhan, China) and SEPT6 (Proteintech) at 4 °C overnight. Then, the tissues were washed, incubated with an Alexa Fluor 488conjugated anti-mouse antibody and Alexa Fluor 594 conjugated anti-rabbit antibody (Promoter Biotechnology, Wuhan, China). The nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (Promoter).
The paraffin-embedded liver tissue sections from the adenovirus-treated rats were incubated with a
FITCconjugated Ki67 antibody (BD, BioScience, New Jersey, USA) and an anti-
α-SMA (clone 1A4) cy3-labelled (Sigma-Aldrich, Hamburg, Germany) antibody to detect the proliferative rate of the HSCs. A FITC-conjugated TUNEL assay (Roche, Mannheim, Germany) was performed with anti-α-smooth muscle actin (SMA; clone 1A4) cy3-labelled antibody staining to detect the apoptotic rate in the HSCs as previously described [28] . The nuclei were counterstained with DAPI (Promoter). All immunofluorescence staining assays were performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. Digital images were taken under a fluorescence microscope. (×100 magnification)
Fan Y., Du Z., Steib C.J., Ding Q., Lu P., Tian D, & Liu M. (2019). Effect of SEPT6 on the biological behavior of hepatic stellate cells and liver fibrosis in rats and its mechanism. Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology, 99(1).