Research Paper Volume 14, Issue 10 pp 4281—4304

Figure 3. AhR−/− livers overexpress senescence and undifferentiation/stemness markers. Protein levels of senescence markers p16^Ink4 and p21^Cip1 and pluripotency/stemness inducers NANOG and OCT4 were analyzed by immunofluorescence in liver sections of aged AhR+/+ and AhR−/− mice and in hepatocarcinomas from AhR−/− mice. Expression of α-SMA was also analyzed as indicator of vasculogenesis. Conjugated secondary antibodies labelled with Alexa 488, Alexa 550 and Alexa 633 were used for detection. DAPI staining was used to label cell nuclei. An Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope and the FV10 software (Olympus) were used for the analysis. Scale bar corresponds to 50 μm.