Fig. 5.

Changes in extracellular matrix protein laminin, hyaluronic acid, TIMP-1 and MMP-1. ELISA detection of laminin (a) and hyaluronic acid (b) in the sera from the rats treated with Smad7-MSCs for 7 and 21 days in comparison with the control group (vehicle), cirrhosis group (with CCl₄ injection) and the cirrhosis group treated with MSCs (n = 4 for each group). c, d Quantitative PCR for TIMP1 and MMP-1. GAPDH was used as the housekeeping gene for relative quantification (n = 6 for each group). e TIMP-1 and MMP-1 detected by Western blotting in the liver lysate (n = 5 for each group). *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 or ***P < 0.001 comparing with the control group; ^###P < 0.001 comparing with the cirrhosis group