Figure 3.

Hypoxia inhibits HGF expression in culture-activated myofibroblastic HSCs. A: HGF mRNA expression was assessed by semiquantitative RT-PCR in HSCs maintained under normoxia or exposed to hypoxia. VEGF was used as a control of hypoxia-induced gene. 28S rRNA served as an internal standard. B: Semiquantification of HGF mRNA level (means ± SEM, n = 3) in HSCs exposed to normoxia (open bars) or hypoxia (filled bars) for 6, 12, and 24 hours. C: HGF expression was estimated by Western blot in HSCs exposed to normoxia or hypoxia for 24 hours. Additional evidence for the specificity of the results is the detection of nonspecific bands sized at 45 kd that are not influenced by hypoxia.