The dataset contains confocal immunofluorescence images of human pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatic stellate cells (scHSCs) and human primary HSCs (pHSCs).
In the homeostatic liver, HSCs exist in a quiescent state. Upon liver injury, HSCs differentiate into an activated, myofibroblast-like state. The activated HSCs are phenotypically characterized by the intracellular expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin (a-SMA). Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-b) is a potent HSC activator and is commonly used to assess the activation capacity of cultured HSCs.
In this dataset, scHSCs and pHSCs were grown in vitro and stained with immunofluorescent labels for the HSC marker PDGFR-b as well as the activation-related proteins a-SMA and COL1a1. Image analysis of the dataset was performed to quantify a-SMA fluorescence intensity to assess the activation status of the HSCs in the presence and absence of TGF-b.
An example script to analyze the data is provided on GitHub: https://github.com/ingridwilhelmsen/a-SMA_analysis/blob/main/a-SMA_analysis-Activation.ipynb
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