IL17RA and hepatitis B virus infection: Results demonstrated that IL-17R expression was appreciably higher in patients with hepatitis B infection and the expression was mainly in the fibrotic septa (Figure S7A and B). The localization of positively stained cells, and the essential role of HSCs in hepatic fibrosis prompted us to investigate whether the cells observed as IL-17R+ were in fact HSCs. By double-fluorescence staining, we confirmed that the IL-17R was indeed expressed on HSCs (Figure S7C). We further found that a few mDCs also expressed IL-17R (Figure S7D).