Measurements were performed manually on a monitor using ImageJ software (Wayne Rasband, National Institutes of Health, USA, http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/). For each rabbit, ultrathin sections originating from two independent 1 mm3 blocks (corresponding to the right and left liver lobe) were analysed. Statistical analysis All data are expressed as means ± standard error of the means (SEM). The diameters of fenestrae in saline and ethanol-injected rabbits were compared by a Student’s t-test using Instat3 (GraphPad Software). Gaussian distribution of
the data was tested using the method of Kolmogorov and Smirnov. The homogeneity of variances between groups was checked with Levene’s test for equality of variances. A two-sided p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Acknowledgements
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