Histological and biochemical assessment
According to our previous publication (Jiang et al., 2019), liver samples were fixed in formalin, embedded in paraffin, sectioned and stained for haematoxylin and eosin (H&E staining). Paraffin-embedded sections were stained with β-catenin antibody (BD Biosciences, 610153, San Jose, CA) and KI67 antibody (Abcam, ab15580). Olympus BX41 microscope was used to examine the stained liver sections. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bile acid (TBA) and total bilirubin (TBLI) levels were detected by commercially available kits (Nanjing Jiancheng Bioengineering Institute, China) guided by the manufacturer’s protocols.