Fig. 6. PPZ downregulated the expression of hepatic fibrogenic genes via YAP.

LX-2 cells were transfected with pcDNA3.1/Flag-YAP plasmids (2.5 µg) (a) or siRNA-YAP (50 nM) (b) for 24 h, and followed by 2 ng· mL⁻¹ TGFβ1 (2T) and 200 µM PPZ treatment for an additional 24 h. The protein expression levels of YAP and fibrogenic markers, including COL1A1, α-SMA, and TGFβ1, were measured by Western blotting. The data are presented as the mean ± SD of three independent experiments. ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 vs. the pcDNA3.1/si-Control + 2T + PPZ group; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 vs. the pcDNA3.1/Flag-YAP/si-YAP + 2T group; ^△P < 0.05 vs. the pcDNA3.1/Flag-YAP/si-YAP + 2T + PPZ group.