Glycyrrhetinic Acid-Induced MiR-663a Alleviates Hepatic Stellate Cell Activation by Attenuating the TGF-β/Smad Signaling Pathway

Figure 5

GA regulated the miR-663a/TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. (a) GA significantly induced the expression of miR-663a at 10 μM and 15 μM in LX2 cells. MiR-663a expression was measured by RT-qPCR. U6 was used as an internal control. , compared with the untreated control cells (NC). (b) and (c) The protein expression of TGF-β1, TGF-βRI, Smad3, Smad4, p-Smad2, p-Smad3, COL1A2, and α-SMA was markedly decreased at 48 h after GA treatment in LX2 cells. The protein expression was measured by western blot. GAPDH served as an internal control. , compared with the control group, and , compared with the TGF-β1 group.

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