Fig. 2

The effect of SFN on the expression of protein markers in TGF-β1-induced fibrosis in MRC-5 fibroblast cells. The cells were pre-treated for 1 h with the indicated concentrations of SFN and for 48 h with TGF-β1 (5.0 ng/ml). The effects of SFN on cell viability for 24, 48, and 72 h (a). The protein levels of fibronectin, collagen, and α- SMA were measured by western blot analyses (b). The mRNA levels of fibronectin (c), type I collagen (d), type IV collagen (e) and α-SMA (f) were measured by the qRT-PCR. The data are expressed as means ± the standard deviation of at least three different experiments. ^**p < 0.01 versus the control; ^†p < 0.05, ^††p < 0.01, ^†††p < 0.001 versus TGF-β1 induction