Distinct antifibrogenic effects of erlotinib, sunitinib and sorafenib on rat pancreatic stellate cells

Figure 4 Effects of erlotinib, sorafenib and sunitinib on the expression of type I collagen and α-smooth muscle actin. Cultured pancreatic stellate cells (PSC) were grown to subconfluency before they were treated for 48 h with SMI at the indicated concentrations. Afterwards, protein extracts from equal amounts of cells were subjected to Western blot analysis. Type I collagen, α-SMA and GAPDH (for loading control) were detected using fluorescein (IRDye^®)-labelled secondary antibodies. (A) One representative Western blot for all three SMI is shown. Afterwards, fluorescence signal intensities of collagen I (B), α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) (C) and GAPDH (B and C) were quantified using Odyssey^® software. Subsequently, the ratios collagen I/GAPDH (B) and α-SMA/GAPDH (C) were determined to normalize for loading variations. A ratio of one hundred percent corresponds to control cells cultured without SMI. Data of n = 6 independent experiments were used to calculate mean ± SE. ^aP < 0.05 vs control cultures.