Figure 2

Effects of curcumin on activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and collagen type I protein expression in the liver. (A, B) Immunohistochemical staining of type I collagen and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in the liver (original magnification, ×200). (C, D) Western blotting analysis of hepatic collagen-I and α-SMA expression. Liver tissue was lysed and subjected to western blot analysis for collagen-I and α-SMA, and the loading control GAPDH. Blots obtained from several experiments were analysed using densitometry, and the densitometric values were pooled from four animals per group and shown as means ± SD in the bar graph. *P < 0.01 for Cur/CCl₄ vs. PBS/CCl₄.