Fig. 3.

Key role of TGF-β-Smad3 signal pathway in the HSOS mouse mode induced by Gynura Rhizoma. a Protein concentration of TGF-β in serum. b Hepatic mRNA expression of Activin and Follistatin. c Immunohistochemical staining for p-Smad3 (400× magnification, bar is 50 μm). The bar represents 50 μm. Red arrows indicate p-Smad3-positive cells. Six fields were randomly selected and observed for each sample. d Hepatic mRNA expression of Collagen-Iα1 and Collagen-Iα2. Values are expressed as the mean ± SD (n = 6–12). Statistics were analyzed by unpaired t-test. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001 vs. control group