Figure 1.

miR-221 Inhibits Latent TGF-β1 Mediated Cardiac Fibroblast Activation

Adult rat cardiac fibroblasts (cFB) were serum starved for 24 h and then treated with 80 ng/mL L-TGF-β1 for 5-day with transfections of miR-221 mimic (miR-221) or mimic control (MC). (A) Immunofluorescence images of cFB stained with α-SMA (green), phalloidin (red) and DAPI (blue). Scale bar = 100 μm. (B) Collagen secretion in cFB culture supernatant measured by Sircol assay. (C) Western blot measurement for α-SMA, phosphorylated (P-), and total (T-) SMAD3, with β-actin as loading control. Values were expressed as mean ± SD. #p < 0.05, ##p < 0.01, ###p < 0.001 versus L-TGF-β1+MC; ∗∗p < 0.01, ∗∗∗p < 0.001 versus Ctrl by by one-way ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc analysis. Experiments performed three times in triplicates.