Figure 3.

Celastrol attenuated CCl4‐induced liver fibrosis in rats. Rats were grouped as follows: 1. control group (no CCl4, no treatment); 2. model group (with CCl4, no treatment); 3. celastrol (0.25 mg/kg) and CCl4 treated group; 4. celastrol (0.5 mg/kg) and CCl4 treated group; and 5. celastrol (1 mg/kg) and CCl4 treated group. A, Liver sections were stained with masson (scale bar: 100 μm) and sirus red (scale bar: 50 μm) reagents, respectively, and representative photographs are shown (magnification, 200×). B, Measurement of hydroxyproline levels in liver homogenate. C, Real‐time PCR analyses of a‐SMA, fibronectin, α(I)procollagen and PPARγ in liver tissues. GAPDH was used as the invariant control. D, Western blot analyses of liver proteins with densitometry. Representative blots were from three independent experiments. Significance: *P < .05 and **P < .01 vs the control group; #P < .05 and ##P < .01 vs the model group