Figure 2. Insulin stimulates the activation of quiescent HSCs in vitro, which is attenuated by curcumin.

After culturing for 24 hr in serum-rich media (20% of FBS) for cell attachment, freshly-isolated HSCs were cultured in DMEM with 10% of FBS, or 2% of FBS plus insulin (100 nM) with or without curcumin at indicated concentrations for additional 1, 3, or 5 days. Each treatment had triplicates. After fixation, the cells were stained with Oil Red O for detecting intracellular lipid droplets, which were colored dark red by Oil Red O. Representative views were presented.