Knockdown of DDR2 induced apoptosis and inhibited proliferation of HSCs in rat liver.

<p>(a) Light microscopy of TUNEL and α-SMA dural stain (400×magnification); black arrows show positive cells with brown stain in both nuclei and cytoplasm, one of these cells was amplified at the upper right corner of image of p.DDR2.shRNA+ALD group; red arrows show cells with brown-stained cytoplasm but blue-stained in nuclei, two of these cells was amplified at the upper right corner of images of p.control.shRNA+ALD and ALD groups. (b) Quantification of TUNEL staining (n = 20). (c) Immunochemistry staining of Ki67 and α-SMA (400×magnification); black arrows show cells with brown-stained in cytoplasm but blue stain in nuclei, one of these cells was amplified at the upper right corner of image of p.DDR2.shRNA+ALD group; red arrows show positive cells with both brown-stained cytoplasm and nuclei, two of these cells was amplified at the upper right corner of images of p.control.shRNA+ALD and ALD groups. (d) Quantification of immunochemical staining for Ki67 (n = 20). Data are mean ± SD. **P<0.01.