Fig. 5.

Macrophage-to-myofibroblast transition in BMDMs from normal young (2.5-month) and aged (15–16-month) mice. BMDMs cultured from normal young and aged mice were treated with/without 10 ng/ml of recombinant TGF-β1 for 96 h, and the cells were collected for immunocytochemistry or qRT-PCR. A Representative confocal images of control and TGF-β1-treated BMDMs stained for DAPI (blue), α-SMA (red) and collagen-1 (green) from and aged mice. Scale bar = 100 µm. Dot/bar figure showing the percentages of collagen-1⁺ α-SMA⁺ cells in control and TGF-β1-treated BMDMs from young and aged mice. Mean ± SD, n = 4, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, Student t test. C, D Relative mRNA expression of fibrotic marker genes (Col1a1, Acta2, Fn1) in control and TGF-β1-treated BMDMs from young (C) and aged mice (D). Mean ± SD, n = 3–4, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, Student t test