Figure 3.

Identification of the antifibrotic effects of costunolide (COS) in vitro. LX‐2 cells were treated with 2 ng·ml⁻¹ TGFβ1 with or without different concentrations of COS for 24 hr after no FBS starvation. Mouse pHSCs were treated with different concentrations of COS for 24 hr after 7 days of isolation. COS repressed the COL1A1, MMP2, TGFB1 and ACTA2 in a dose‐dependent manner in (a) LX‐2 cells and (d) mouse pHSCs. GAPDH/Gapdh served as loading control. COS dose‐ and time‐dependently inhibited the protein levels of COL1A1, MMP2, TGFβ1, and α‐SMA in (b and c) LX‐2 cells and (e and f) mouse pHSCs. The protein levels were normalized against GAPDH. The values are expressed as the mean ± SD of five independent assays, ^# P < .05, significantly different from the control group and ^* P < .05, significantly different from the TGFβ1 treatment group in LX‐2 cells; ^* P < .05, significantly different from the control group in mouse pHSCs; ANOVA followed by Tukey's test