Fig. 4.

The effect of bFGF and TGF-β1 on SMAD2 phosphorylation in cultured trout cardiac fibroblasts. Cardiac fibroblast cultures were treated with medium alone or medium containing 15 ng ml⁻¹ bFGF or 15 ng ml⁻¹ TGF-β1 repetitively for 7 days and total SMAD2 and phosphorylated SMAD2 were quantified using Western blot and densitometry. (B) Mean pSMAD2 and SMAD2 levels measured by densitometry and standardized to total protein. Different letters denote an effect of treatment on phosphorylation level of SMAD2, relative to control (P < 0.05). Note the large break on the y-axis. The n for each experiment is 3, with each n being a protein sample extracted from cultured cells derived from a different trout ventricle. Figure modified from (Johnston and Gillis, 2018).