Fig. 2.

Distribution of Smad7-EGFP-MSCs in the liver and the expression of Smads. a Example of direct injection of Smad7-EGFP-MSCs into the liver lobes. The distribution of Smad7-EGFP-MSCs (green fluorescence) in the liver tissue was detected on the frozen sections using a laser confocal microscope at the time points of 24 h, 7 days and 21 days after cell injection. b Smad7 mRNA quantification in the groups of control (vehicle control without CCl₄), cirrhosis group (with CCl₄ injection), cirrhosis group treated with MSCs and cirrhosis group treated with Smad7-MSCs. c Serum protein level of Smad7 detected using ELISA (n = 4). d Smad2 mRNA quantification using real-time PCR. GAPDH was set as housekeeping gene control for relative quantification (n = 6). e Smad3 mRNA quantification (n = 6). **P < 0.01 or ***P < 0.001 comparing with the control group; ^###P < 0.001 comparing with the cirrhosis group