Expression of activated Stat3 in the livers of wild-type (WT), Hfe^−/−, Tfr2^−/− and Hfe^−/−/Tfr2^−/− mice treated with LPS. (A) Western blotting was used to determine the expression of phosphorylated Stat3 in the livers of 5-week-old male WT, Hfe^−/−, Tfr2^−/−, and Hfe^−/−/Tfr2^−/− mice injected with saline or LPS for 6 hours. The blots in panel A were quantitated using SynGene GeneTools, and the results are shown as ratios of phospho-Stat3/total-Stat3 (B), phospho-Stat3/Gapdh (C), and total-Stat3/Gapdh (D) for saline-injected (white bars) and LPS-injected (black bars) mice. Data are shown as the means; error bars indicate SEM. Statistical comparisons were performed using the Student t test. Significant differences (P < .05) are denoted between control and LPS treatments (*) and between strains compared with WT (a), with Hfe^−/− (b), and with Tfr2^−/− (c).