Fig. 2

ALLN inhibits the expression of fibrogenic signaling molecules, and transcription factors in cultured human dermal fibroblasts stimulated with TGF-β1. Normal human dermal fibroblasts were pretreated with DMSO as control or various concentrations of DMSO-diluted ALLN for 1 h, followed by stimulation with 10 ng/ml recombinant human TGF-β1 for an additional 24 h. A The amount of collagen I in the supernatant was measured by specific ELISA. All values represent the mean ± SEM; n = 4 for each group; *, p ≤ 0.05; ***, p ≤ 0.001. B Effects of ALLN on the mRNA expression of transcription factors associated with the mesenchymal transition in human dermal fibroblasts. All values represent the mean ± SEM; n = 5 for each group; * p ≤ 0.05; ** p ≤ 0.01. C Fibroblasts were immunostained for phospho-Smad2/3, SNAIL2, or ZEB1 (green). Nuclear counterstaining (blue) was performed with DAPI. Representative images of three experiments are shown (400-fold magnification)