Figure 7. Effect of PI3K, mTOR, GSK3β and SMAD3 inhibitors on total collagen production in-vitro.

Mesangial cells were pre-treated as in figure 4. (a, b) Cells treated with HG were separately treated with AS101 (2 µg/ml), LY294002 (50 µM), Rapamycin (0.1 ng/ml), PD98059 (100 µM), SB216763 (30 µM) and SIS3 (20 µM). After 48 h, cells were stained with Sirius red to detect collagen. Results are representative of two experiments. After washing the dye (a) Light microscope examination (X40) and (b) photograph of culture plates was performed.