All animal studies were performed in strict accordance with the Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee at the University of Pittsburgh and National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines. Mice were fed a special diet containing 0.1% DDC (Bioserve, Frenchtown, NJ) for periods of time ranging from 3 to 150 days to induce atypical ductular proliferation that has been described.1 The University of Pittsburgh, Department of Pathology learn more Lab Support Services, performed serum biochemical measurements. Total bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP),

aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured on serum from KO and WT livers fed with DDC for different times. Whole cell lysates were extracted in radioimmunoprecipitation assay (RIPA) buffer with protease and phosphatase inhibitors (Sigma). Concentration of proteins was determined by bicinchoninic acid protein assay. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) analysis was performed with 20-100 μg of protein resolved on Bio-Rad gels (7.5% or 4%-15% gradient gels) under reducing

conditions using Mini-Protean electrophoresis module assembly (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA). This was followed by an hour transfer at constant voltage (100V) in transfer buffer (25 mmol/L Tris [pH 8.3], 192 mmol/L glycine, 20% methanol, and 0.025% SDS) to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes (PVDF, Millipore, Bedford, MA) using the Mini Trans-Blot electrophoretic transfer cell (Bio-Rad). For western blot analysis, selleck compound membranes were blocked in 5% milk CH5424802 manufacturer or bovine serum albumin (BSA) for 30 minutes at room temperature (RT) or overnight at 4°C. Membranes were incubated with primary antibody in 5% milk or BSA for 1 hour at RT followed by 2 washes in 1% milk or BSA. Primary antibodies used are listed in online Supporting Table 1. Next, membranes were incubated with appropriate horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated secondary antibody (Chemicon, Temecula, CA) at concentrations

of 1:10,000-50,000 in 1% milk or BSA, washed, and visualized with the Western Lightning chemiluminescence kit (PerkinElmer Life Sciences, Boston, MA). Autoradiographs were scanned and analyzed for densitometry using the ImageJ software. Tissues fixed in 10% formalin were embedded in paraffin and 4-μm sections were used for hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining and immunohistochemistry (IHC). For IHC, sections were rehydrated by passing through xylene, graded alcohol, and distilled water. After antigen retrieval, endogenous peroxide inactivation and blocking, sections were incubated with primary antibody (online Supporting Table 1) for 1 hour at RT, washed, and incubated with appropriate biotin-conjugated secondary antibody for 30 minutes. Sections were washed, incubated with ABC reagent, washed, and incubated with DAB.