In situ hybridization analysis of hepcidin mRNA expression.

Hepcidin mRNA expression is low in unaffected liver tissue when compared with the adenoma tissue of patients A (A-C,F) and B (D,E). Adjacent adenoma tissue and unaffected liver tissue visualized at a magnification of × 10. (A) shows hepcidin mRNA expression is significantly greater in the adenoma. Adenoma tissue is indicated by “a,” and unaffected liver tissue is indicated by “n.” Arrowheads indicate the region occupied by the capsule at the interface between the liver and adenoma. Higher power (original magnification, × 100) confirmed that hepcidin mRNA expression is lower in hepatocytes of normal tissue (C,E) as compared with adjacent adenoma tissue (B,D) from the same tissue section. Hybridization with a hepcidin probe from the sense strand acts as a control for nonspecific staining (F). These results are representative of 2 experiments without significant variation between experiments.