Down-regulation of transforming growth factor β1/activin receptor-like kinase 1 pathway gene expression by herbal compound 861 is related to deactivation of LX-2 cells

Figure 1 Effect of different treatment on α-SMA, Id1, ALK1 expression after 24 h. Cpd861 could decrease the level of all these genes compared with untreated LX-2 cells (^aP < 0.05 vs control LX-2 cell group). Even with TGFβ1, Cpd861 could also exert its inhibitory roles in these genes expression (^cP < 0.05 vs TGFβ1 treated group). Samples were obtained from 6 wells of cells for examining the relative fold change of α-SMA (A), Id1 (B), ALK1 (C) expression .Three replicate reactions for per sample. Error bars, SD.

Figure 2 The level of α-SMA protein expression with different treatment after 24 h. Western blot was used as described in Materials and Methods. A: Representative Western blot results of α-SMA. The positions of protein size markers were given; B: Densitometry of Western blot analyzed by Gel-pro software. The levels of α-SMA were normalized to the level of β-actin protein. Six independent experiments were performed. ^aP < 0.05 vs control LX-2 cell group. Error bars, SD.

Figure 3 Expression of α-SMA in different treatment groups. Qualitative expression of α-SMA in control LX-2 cells (A), treated with TGFβ1 (B), Cpd861 (C) and Cpd861 together with TGFβ1 (D) for 24 h using immunohistochemical staining. α-SMA presented brown color in cytoplasm (× 200).

Figure 4 The level of Phosphorylated Smad1 with different treatment after 24 h. Western blot was used as described. A: Representative Western blot results of Phosphorylated Smad1. The positions of protein size markers were given; B: Densitometry of Western-blot analyzed by Gel-pro software. The levels of Phospho-Smad1 were normalized to the level of β-actin protein. Six independent experiments were performed. ^aP < 0.05 vs untreated LX-2 cell group, ^cP < 0.05 vs TGFβ1 treated group. Error bars, SD.