The Chinese Herbal Decoction Danggui Buxue Tang Inhibits Angiogenesis in a Rat Model of Liver Fibrosis
Figure 5
Effect of DBT and NAC on VEGF, Angiopoietin 1 and TGF-β1 signaling in CCl4-induced fibrotic liver tissue in rats. (a) The expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 protein was detected by western blot. Compared to the normal group, the expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 was significantly increased in fibrotic livers. DBT, but not NAC, significantly decreased VEGF and VEGFR2 expression, and there was a significant difference in VEGF expression between DBT- and NAC-treated groups. (c) The expression of the Angiopoietin 1 and Tie 2 protein was detected by western blot. Compared to the normal group, the expression of Ang1 and Tie 2 was increased in fibrotic livers. DBT and NAC decreased Ang1 and Tie 2 expression. (e) The expression of the TGF-β1/TGFβ-R protein was detected by western blot. Compared to the normal group, TGFβ1/TGFβ-R protein expression was significantly increased in fibrotic livers. DBT and NAC significantly decreased the expression of TGFβ1/TGFβ-R. (g) The expression of ERK and p-ERK protein was detected by western blot. Although there was no significant difference in ERK protein expression among the four groups, p-ERK protein expression was significantly increased in fibrotic livers. DBT and NAC significantly decreased p-ERK protein expression, and there was a significant difference between DBT- and NAC-treated groups. (b, d, f, h) Histograms of VEGF/VEGFR2, Ang1/Tie 2, TGFβ1/TGFβ-R, and ERK/p-ERK expression. The proteins were semi-quantified by densitometric analysis and expressed as the mean ± SD for three separate experiments. versus normal group, versus model group, versus NAC group.
