Fig. 1From: Serum transferrin as a biomarker of hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha activity and hepatocyte function in liver diseasesTransferrin serum levels reflect the decreased transferrin expression in advanced liver disease. a, b Hepatic transferrin protein levels were determined by immunoblotting in cirrhotic patients (cirrhosis) and individuals without a significant liver disease (control). GAPDH was used as a loading control. The relative band intensity was quantified with the ImageJ software (cohort i). c Immunohistochemical staining of liver sections with an antibody against transferrin. Scale barā=ā200āĪ¼m (cohort i). d Normalized transcripts per million base pairs (tpm) of the Transferrin gene in patients with alcohol-related liver disease and normal livers. The samples were obtained from biopsies from patients with normal background liver (āNormal,ā Nā=ā10), patients with early or silent alcohol-related steatohepatitis (āEarly,ā Nā=ā12), and patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH), at different disease stages: non-severe (NSev_AH, Nā=ā11) and severe (Severe_AH, Nā=ā27, including biopsies Nā=ā18 and explants Nā=ā9) (cohort ii). e Spearmanās correlation coefficient reveals the relationship between serum transferrin levels and relative hepatic transferrin mRNA expression in 23 patients with advanced liver disease and available matched serum-mRNA sample pairs (cohort i)Back to article page