Fig. 2

Endothelial Gata4 deficiency causes hepatopathy and B16F10Luc2 melanoma cells produce more hepatic metastasis in Gata4^LSEC−KO/BL. A Macroscopic liver phenotype (scale bars = 1 cm). B Picrosirius Red (PSR) staining (scale bars = 100 µm). C Quantification of PSR positive area (6 vs. 6, p = 0.047, unpaired t-test) and hydroxyprolin assay in mg collagen/gram liver tissue (6 vs. 6, p = 0.0377, unpaired t-test). D Immunofluorescence staining of glutamine synthetase (GS), Endomucin (EMCN) and Lymphatic vessel endothelial hyaluronan receptor 1 (LYVE1) (scale bars = 100 µm). E In situ hybridization of Pdgfb in mouse liver (scale bars = 100 µm). F Setup for B16F10Luc2 metastasis formation in Gata4^LSEC−KO/BL mice. Metastatic burden was assessed 14 days after intrasplenic B16F10Luc2 injection. G Macroscopic images of representative B16F10Luc2 metastatic livers (scale bars = 1 cm). H Counted hepatic metastasis (8 vs. 7, p = 0.0357, unpaired t-test); quantified metastatic percentage of whole liver area (8 vs. 6, p = 0.0080, Mann–Whitney U test). I Left panel: ex vivo BLI of livers 14 days after cell injection. Scale: Min: 6 × 10⁶ (p/sec/cm²/sr); Max: 1.1 × 10⁸ (p/sec/cm.²/sr). Livers were set as regions of interest and BLI signals were displayed. Right panel: measured BLI signal 14 days post injection (8 vs. 7, p = 0.0279, unpaired t-test)