Fig. 4.

Curcumin inhibits hepatocyte epithelial-mesenchymal transition via blocking TTC3/SMURF2/SMADs axis. Activated BNL CL.2 was exposed to siBECN1 and siCTR respectively, and then treated with curcumin for 24 h. The resulting cells were induced with TGF-β (2 ng·mL⁻¹) or interfered with curcumin (20 μM/L). A: Gene thermogram for BNL CL.2 treatment with curcumin or not, which induced by TGF-β (2 ng·mL^-1) in advance. B–C: Western blot and Real-time PCR analysis were used to detect the expression of TTC3, SMURF2, Smad2, Smad3, α-SMA, Vimentin, Beclin-1 (BECN1) and LC3 (x ± s, n ≥ 3). β-Actin was used as an invariant control for equal loading. GAPDH was used as an invariant control for equal loading. D: Immunofluorescence detection of autophagy, Smads, TTC3-related proteins expressions. Compared with the control group ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01,^###P < 0.001; Compared with the model group (TGF-β, 2 ng·mL⁻¹) *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001.