Figure 5.

Cell differentiation induced by TGF‐β is abolished by gene silence of Prrx2 in cardiac fibroblasts. Cultured cardiac fibroblasts were infected with adenovirus expressing negative control (NC) shRNA or Prrx2 shRNA for 48 h and then treated with TGF‐β (10 ng/mL) for 24 h. A, Cell differentiation was determined by immunofluorescence analysis of α‐SMA and quantitative analysis was shown. B, Gene expressions of α‐SMA, GAPDH, collagen I (Col I) and collagen III (Col III) in cells were measured by real‐time PCR. C and D, Total cell lysates of cardiac fibroblasts were subjected to perform Western blotting analysis to detect protein levels of α‐SMA, p‐ERK, p‐JNK, Col I, and Col III in C and quantitative analysis was performed in D. N is 5 in each group. *P < .05 vs NC plus Vehicle. ^# P < .05 vs NC plus TGF‐β