title: [Epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype transition in the liver of rats with bile duct ligation].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the occurrence of epithelial to mesenchymal phenotype transition (EMT) in the liver of rats following bile duct ligation (BDL).
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-four male Wistar rats were randomized into sham-operated group and BDL group. Liver fibrosis of the rats was evaluated by HE staining and Masson's trichrome staining. Western blotting was used to detect the expression levels of the epithelial markers albumin and E-cadherin and the mesenchymal markers type I collagen and vimentin in the liver tissue. Immunofluorescence was employed to determine the co-localizations of FSP-1+vimentin, FSP-1+type I collagen, FSP-1+albumin, and albumin+type I collagen in cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with those in sham-operated group, the rats in BDL group showed significantly increased ISHAK fibrosis score (4.42+1.16 vs 0, P+0.000), METAVIR fibrosis score (3.42+0.67 vs 0, P+0.000) and type I collagen levels (0.30+0.06 vs 0.11+0.07, P+0.000) with up-regulated protein levels of albumin (0.53+0.63 vs 1.12+0.01, P+0.000) and E-cadherin (0.21+0.01 vs 0.44+0.01, P+0.000) and down-regulated type I collagen (8.21+0.12 vs 0.24+0.01, P+0.000) and vimentin (3.14+0.01 vs 0.37+0.01, P+0.000). The number of cells with co-localizations of FSP-1+vimentin, FSP-1+type I collagen, FSP-1+albumin, and albumin+type I collagen was also significantly increased in BDL group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BDL causes significantly decreased expression of epithelial markers and increased expressions of the mesenchymal markers in rats, indicating the occurrence of EMT in some of the liver cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. hs86hs86@126.com
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wenyong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunqiu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Changhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001652:Bile Ducts / Q000601:surgery; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D024042:Collagen Type I / Q000378:metabolism; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000502:physiology*; D008026:Ligation; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D014746:Vimentin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015820:Cadherins; D024042:Collagen Type I; D014746:Vimentin