Fig. 6.

VPO1 mediates cardiac fibroblasts proliferation. (A) Representative immunofluorescence images of BrdU (red), α-SMA (green) and DAPI (blue) staining in cultured cardiac fibroblasts transfected with siRNA and treated with or without TGF-β1. Scale bar: 50 μm. Quantification of BrdU positive and α-SMA staining cells. n = 4. (B) CCK-8 proliferation assay of primary cardiac fibroblasts transfected with siRNA and exposed to TGF-β1for 24 h n = 7. (C–E) Western blot and quantification of Smad2/3 phosphorylation in MI mice injected with si-NC and si-VPO1 (C), or cultured cardiac fibroblasts transfected with siRNA and incubated with or without TGF-β1 (D). n = 6. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. In A-D, one-way ANOVA test was used. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)