Fig. 4

PEDF inhibited fibroblast activation by inhibiting the TGF-β1/smad2/3 pathway. A Observation of the morphological characteristics of PRL fibroblasts by microscope. Bar = 50 μm; B Identification of PRL fibroblasts using fluorescence microscope. Vimentin positive, von Willebrand factor (vWF), and factor VIII negative cells stand for PRL fibroblasts. Bar = 100 μm. C Quantitative statistics of the positive rate of each factor. D and E Western blot to detect the effect of different concentrations of TGF-β1 on PEDF expression. F and G Western blot to detect the effect of PEDF on α-SMA and collagen-I expression. H and I Western blot to detect the effect of PEDF on phospho-smad2/smad3 expression. PEDF-LV (denoted as PEDF) treatment group or PEDF-shRNA-LV (denoted as shPEDF) treatment group vs. Ctrl group. Data are expressed as the mean ± SD, n = 4, NS, no significant difference; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001. J Immunofluorescence to observe the effect of PEDF on the intracellular distribution of smad2/3. Bar = 20 μm