Fig. 2.

Transdifferentiation of HSCs into MFs through TGF-β1 signaling. a After treating mouse HSCs with exogenous TGF-β1 and TGF-βR1 inhibitor for 48 h, mRNA expression of target transcription factors was assessed by qRT-PCR. It showed that TGF-β1, TGF-βR1, α-SMA, Smad2, Smad3 mRNA expression in TGF-β1-affected HSCs were significantly increased compared with those in the control group; however, expression of these above transcription factors was significantly decreased in the selective TGF-βR1 inhibitor SB 431542-treated HSCs. b Target proteins expression in differently-treated HSCs was measured by western blotting analysis. The data detected that TGF-β1-activated HSCs expressed high level of TGF-β1, TGF-βR1, α-SMA, Smad2/3 and p-Smad2/3 compared with control HSCs; nevertheless, HSCs obviously decreased those above proteins expression level after being treated with TGF-βR1 inhibitor. ***p < 0.01 and *p < 0.05 compared with the control group respectively; Scale bars = mean ± SEM, n = 3/group