Figure 4

Histological appearance of the liver: (A) Expression of collagen was viewed by sirius red staining: Collagen bridge was uniform in control and HSC treated groups but not in MSC and MSC+HGF-CNP treated groups (original magnification × 100). (B) Quantitative analysis of fibrosis is shown in histographic representation. The degree of fibrosis was expressed as the percentage of the total area measured. The fibrosis areas were significantly low in MSC and MSC+HGF-CNP treated groups (P < 0.05). However there were no statistical differences in liver fibrosis between control and HSC treated groups. (C) Hydroxyproline content was estimated by Neuman and Logan method. Hydroxyproline content did not vary significantly between control and HSC treated groups and but was significantly low in MSC and MSC+HGF+CNP groups (P < 0.05). (D) Formalin fixed liver tissues were sectioned into 5 μm size and stained with H&E dyes. Infiltration of inflammatory and necrotic cells was ubiquitous in control and HSC treated groups however, MSC treated groups did not show inflammatory cells (original magnification ×100) Control (1); HSC (2); MSC (3); HSC+HGF-CNP (4); MSC+HGF-CNP (5).