Extracellular histones stimulate collagen expression in vitro and promote liver fibrogenesis in a mouse model via the TLR4-MyD88 signaling pathway

Figure 2 Extracellular histones induced collagen I and α-smooth muscle actin production in LX2 cells. A: Typical western blots of collagen I in medium (upper panel) and lysates (middle panel) of LX2 cells treated with different concentrations of histones at day 6. Lower panel: β-actin in the cell lysates; B: The mean ± SD of the relative percentages of collagen/β-actin ratios with untreated LX2 cells set at 100% from five independent experiments. Analysis of variance test, ^aP < 0.05 compared to untreated cells; C: Immunofluorescent staining of LX2 cells with anti-collagen I and anti-α- smooth muscle actin (SMA) antibodies. Control: Cells were treated with culture medium without histones for 6 d. Histones: Cells were treated with culture medium + 5 μg/mL histones. Typical images are shown. White arrows indicate staining for collagen I, orange arrows indicate staining for α-SMA. Bar = 50 m. α-SMA: α-smooth muscle actin.