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. 2018 Jul 5;8:10175. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28490-y

Figure 8.

Figure 8

Diminazene aceturate (DIZE) inhibited human stellate cell activation and extracellular matrix secretion. TGF-β1 activated human hepatic stellate cells (LX-2 cells) showed a significantly increased gene expression of stellate cell activation marker, α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) (A), compared to untreated LX-2 cells. This was associated with increased expression of extracellular matrix gene, collagen 1 (B). However, DIZE treatment reduced both α-SMA and collagen 1 expression by approximately 50%. This reduction was accompanied by a significantly reduced phosphorylation of Smad2 (C,E) and Smad3 (D,F) proteins. Each bar represents the mean ± SEM profile from 3 independent experiments.