Fig. 4.

A) Effects of mesoderm-specific transcript homologue (Mest) on viability, (B) mRNA expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and (C, D) protein expression of α-SMA, Smad3, and β-catenin in hepatic stellate cell (HSC)-T6 cells. The cell viability was tested using the CytoTox 96 assay according to the manufacturer's instructions. The data are presented as the mean±SD of three individual experiments, and each experiment includes triplicate wells. (B) mRNA expression of α-SMA was determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and (C, D) the protein expression of α-SMA, Smad3, and β-catenin of HSC-T6 cells was measured by western blotting. Data were presented as the mean±SD of three independent experiments. The relative expression was normalized to that of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (β-actin). Lane 1, normal HSCs; lane 2, control HSCs (pcDNA-neo); lane 3, 24 hours after transfection with (pcDNA-Mest); lane 4, 48 hours after transfection with (pcDNA-Mest).

^*p<0.05 compared with the normal group; ^†p>0.05 compared with the normal group; ^‡p<0.05 compared with the control group.