Figure 4.

(A) Changes in architecture of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) with or without siVIM transfection by immunofluorescence microscopy. Images of cells showed that vimentin knockdown caused the loss of actin stress fibers and disturbance of actin polymerization (d,e,f) compared to the mock samples (a,b,c) as indicated by arrows. The structure of local adhesion points which are constituted by filamin was destroyed in the presence of siVIM (j,k,l) with respect to the control (g,h,i). (B) Validation of changes in protein expression after treatment of RNA interference-mediated vimentin silencing. Protein levels of filamin, α-actinin, plectin, talin, and vinculin were assessed by a Western blot analysis. GAPDH was used as an internal control. The quantitative results were demonstrated as a bar chart (* p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, *** p < 0.001).