KDR and portal hypertension: First, we confirmed that the expression of KDR was very low under baseline physiologic conditions in sham-operated control mice, but was strongly upregulated in mesenteric microvenules and neovessels upon portal hypertension induction (p < 0.05), as indicated by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry (Fig. 5A and B; full blots are shown in Supplementary Fig. S2B).