2.3 Bile duct ligation (BDL) surgery in mice
Forty mice were randomly assigned into five groups (sham, BDL‐NS, and BDL‐PB groups) followed by a randomization procedure (http://www.randomizer.org/, Research Randomizer, RRID: SCR_008563), with eight animals per group. Thirty-two mice were prepared for BDL surgery. After the mice were anaesthetized with isoflurane, the mice abdomen was opened. The choledochal duct was isolated and ligated using surgical sutures. Twenty‐four hours after surgery, animals subjected to BDL were randomly divided into three groups and received intraperitoneal injection daily with 1, 2.5, 5mg/kg PB solution (BDL‐PB group) for 14 days. A sham operation was also performed on eight mice (sham group) to create a healthy control group. A normal 2%DMSO solution (2%DMSO group) was intraperitoneal injection daily on eight mice to create a vehicle group. After an overnight fast, blood samples were collected from the abdominal aorta and the animals were killed using isoflurane. Mice liver maximum lobule was collected. Some liver tissue samples were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde for subsequent histological examination and others were stored at −80°C for subsequent analyses.