Fig 1.
Characterization of the experimental model.
(A) Overview of the experimental approach: C57BL/6 male mice were allocated to receive vehicle–control group or PCB 126 (5 μM/kg) biweekly for 10 weeks. At the end of 10 weeks, mice were euthanized and blood and liver were collected for further analyses. (B) Average food intake per animal per day. (C) Body mass during 10 weeks of experiment; values expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 10 per group).
Table 1.
Biochemical parameters in plasma.
Fig 2.
Effects of PCB 126 on cellular, morphological, and molecular features of the liver after 10 weeks of exposure.
(A) Stereology of the liver; (B) Vv steatosis (%) of mouse liver; (C) hepatic triglyceride content; (D) hepatic cholesterol content; (E) aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) gene expression in the liver; gene expression of inflammation-related genes: (F) Mcp1, (G) Cxcl1, (H) Il-6 and (I) Tnf-α. C: Control group; PCB: PCB 126 group. Values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 10 per group for hepatic lipid content; n = 5 per group for histological and stereological analysis; n = 8 per group for RT-PCR). ** p value < 0.01; *** p value < 0.001; ****p value < 0.0001.
Fig 3.
Histological and molecular parameters associated with liver fibrosis after chronic PCB 126 exposure.
(A) Picrosirius red staining; (B) % Picrosirius Red area; (C) hydroxyproline content in the liver; profibrogenic gene expression: (D) Tgfβ1, (E) Smad3, (F) Collagen1α, (G) Cxcl9, and cell death-related gene: (H) Caspase 3. Protein Levels of cleaved caspase 3 (I and J) and SMAD 6 (K and L) were assed. C: Control group; PCB: PCB 126 group. Values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 8). ** p value < 0.01; *** p value < 0.001.
Table 2.
Fatty acids profile in liver samples.
Fig 4.
Molecular parameters of lipid metabolism in the liver after chronic PCB 126 exposure.
(A) Sirtuin-1 (Sirt1) gene expression in the liver. (B) Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (Ppar-α) gene expression in the liver. (C) miR-122 expression in the liver (D) miR-34a expression in the liver. (E) miR-155 expression in the liver. C: Control group; PCB: PCB 126 group. Values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (n = 8). * p value < 0.05; *** p value <0.001.