Fig. 3

Metformin suppresses lung allograft fibrosis. a The mRNA expression of α-SMA (ACTA2), Collagen I (COL1A1), and Fibronectin (FN1) were measured using qRT-PCR, GADPH was used as the internal reference gene. Relative mRNA expression was calculated using the 2 − ∆∆Ct method and shown in bar plots. b Western blot analysis of α-SMA, Collagen I, and Fibronectin expression in lung homogenate of Syngeneic group (lanes 1–2), Allo-CsA group (lanes 3–4), Allo-NS group (lanes 5–6), Allo-Metformin group (lanes 7–8). β-actin was used as the internal reference protein. Each of these detected proteins of different rats in each group were shown in three PVDF membranes. The gel-distributor scheme of diffenrent target proteins and internal reference was based on the molecular weight. c Values of α-SMA, Collagen I, and Fibronectin protein expression were expressed as fold increase of gray values over that of the syngeneic group (lane 1 in each PVDF membranes) were shown in the boxplots. One-way analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s multiple test, *P, 0.05, **P, 0.01, ***P, 0.01. (n = 6 rats / group)