Connective tissue growth factor hammerhead ribozyme attenuates human hepatic stellate cell function

Figure 1 Effect of CCN2 hammmerhead ribozyme on basal or TGF-β-induced mRNA expression of CCN2 or collagen α1 (I). The figure shows the RT-PCR reaction products (upper panel) and the densitometric scans (lower panel) for (A) CCN2 mRNA or (B) collagen α1 (I) after transfection of LX-2 cells with pTriEx2 (lanes 1 and 2) or pTriCC2F-Rz (lanes 3 and 4) under basal conditions (lanes 1 and 3), or after stimulation with 20 ng/mL TGF-β1 for 24 h (lanes 2 and 4). ^aP < 0.05 vs lane 1; ^bP < 0.01 vs lane 1; ^cP < 0.05 vs lane 2.

Figure 2 Effect of CCN2 hammmerhead ribozyme on basal or TGF-β-induced protein production or secretion of CCN2 or collagen I. The figure shows the protein levels of CCN2 (A) or collagen I (B) in cell lysates or conditioned medium measured by ELISA after transfection of the cells with pTriEx2 (lanes 1 and 2) or pTriCC2F-Rz (lanes 3 and 4) under basal conditions (lanes 1 and 3), or after stimulation with 20 ng/mL TGF-β1 for 24 h (lanes 2 and 4). ^aP < 0.05 vs lane 1; ^bP < 0.01 vs lane 1; ^cP < 0.05 vs lane 2.