Fig 3. QSYQ dose-dependently inhibited the fibrotic activity mediated by TGF-β1 in NRK 52E cells.

NRK 52E cells were pre-incubated with QSYQ (5, 10, and 20 μg/ml) for 1h before TGF-β1 (10 ng/ml) treatment. Cells were harvested 36h after TGF-β1 stimulation for real-time PCR and 48h after TGF-β1 stimulation for Western blot analyses, respectively. (A) Real-time PCR analyses of α-SMA, collagen I, and fibronectin. *p = 0.002 vs. TGF-β1 and QSYQ untreated cells (α-SMA), p = 0.001 (collagen I) and p = <10⁻⁸ (fibronectin). ANOVA, p = 0.002 for QSYQ-treated cells (α-SMA), p = 0.001 (collagen I) and p = 0.002 (fibronectin). (B) Western blot analyses of α-SMA, collagen I, and fibronectin. *p = 0.002 vs. TGF-β1 and QSYQ untreated cells (α-SMA), p = 0.001 (collagen I) and p = 0.001 (fibronectin). ANOVA, p<10⁻⁸ for QSYQ-treated cells. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. The Fig 3B collagen I panel is excluded from this article's CC-BY license. See the accompanying retraction notice for more information.