C57bl 6 and balb c mice

Male wild-type (C57BL/6 and Balb/c) mice aged 8 to 11 weeks or 6 to 9 months were obtained from Japan SLC (Shizuoka, Japan). CCl₄ administration or BDL induced liver fibrosis model was used for this study. The animals were intraperitoneally injected with 1 ml/kg body weight of CCl₄ (1:4 v/v in mineral oil) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) twice a week. As a BDL model, common BDL is the most established model. However, the mortality of mice operated with common BDL was high at 5 weeks after the surgery. Thus, our established model, partial bile duct ligation (PBDL) was performed as previously reported (Osawa et al., 2010 (link), Osawa et al., 2006 (link)). The left hepatic duct was ligated with 6-0 silk after anesthesia. The animals were intraperitoneally injected with or without 0.4 mg/mouse PRI-724 (Prism Pharma, Tokyo, Japan) dissolved in PBS 4 times a week. The experiments were conducted in accordance with the institutional guidelines (Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals prepared by the National Academy of Sciences) and the protocol was approved by the Research Committee of Komagome Hospital. All surgery was performed under anesthesia, and all efforts were made to minimize suffering.