Effects of urotensin-II on cytokines in early acute liver failure in mice

Figure 1 Time-dependent expression of urotensin-II in the early stage of lipopolysaccharide/D-galactosamine challenge in mice with or without urantide treatment. A: Representative ethidium bromide-stained gel of reverse transcription-PCR products from liver (M: DNA marker; Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 6.0 h after LPS/D-GalN challenge, respectively); B: Relative expression levels of UII mRNA in the liver (normalized to β-actin); C: Levels of UII secretion in blood as assayed by ELISA. Values are mean ± standard deviation (n = 6); ^aP < 0.05 vs 0 h; ^cP < 0.05 vs 6 h; ^eP < 0.05 vs mice without urantide pretreatment. UII: Urotensin-II; LPS: Lipopolysaccharide; D-GalN: D-galactosamine.