Figure 4

Effects of ozagrel on hepatic cell death-related markers in liver induced by APAP injection. The effects of ozagrel on DNA fragmentation (A) and cell death-related gene expression (B) in liver induced by APAP injection. Mice were treated with ozagrel (200 mg/kg) or saline 30 min after the APAP (330 mg/kg) injection. The liver tissue samples were collected 4 h after the APAP injection. (A) Representative TUNEL staining. A significant number of brown TUNEL-positive cells were observed in the APAP group, while only a few brown cells were observed in the APAP + ozagrel group. (B) Changes in mRNA levels of Jun, Fos, chop and Bim in liver were analyzed by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. There were significant increases in the relative expression levels of all of these genes in the APAP group (black bar) compared with the vehicle group (white bar). The increases in Jun, Fos and chop mRNA levels, but not that of Bim mRNA, were significantly reduced by ozagrel (APAP + ozagrel group; gray bar). Each value represents the mean ± S.E.M. (n = 5–6). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01.