Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2016; 22(19): 4695-4706
Published online May 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i19.4695
Qinggan Huoxue Recipe suppresses epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in alcoholic liver fibrosis through TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathway
Tao Wu, Jun-Ming Chen, Tie-Gang Xiao, Xiang-Bing Shu, Han-Chen Xu, Li-Li Yang, Lian-Jun Xing, Pei-Yong Zheng, Guang Ji
Tao Wu, Center of Chinese Medical Therapy and Systems Biology, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
Tao Wu, Xiang-Bing Shu, Han-Chen Xu, Li-Li Yang, Lian-Jun Xing, Pei-Yong Zheng, Guang Ji, Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200032, China
Jun-Ming Chen, Tie-Gang Xiao, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China
Guang Ji, E-institute of Shanghai Municipal Education Committee, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China
Author contributions: Wu T performed the majority of the experiments and analyzed the data; Chen JM, Xiao TG and Shu XB participated in the treatment of animals; Xu HC and Yang LL performed the histological experiments; Xing LJ, Zheng PY and Ji G designed and coordinated the research; Wu T and Ji G wrote and revised the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81202979; and Shanghai Rising-Star Program, No. 15QA1403500.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institute of Digestive Disease, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (No. 2013031).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Guang Ji, MD, PhD, Professor, Director, Institute of Digestive Disease, China-Canada Center of Research for Digestive Diseases (ccCRDD), Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 725 Wanping Road, Shanghai 200032, China. jiliver@vip.sina.com
Telephone: +86-21-64286261 Fax: +86-21-64286261
Received: January 9, 2016
Peer-review started: January 9, 2016
First decision: February 18, 2016
Revised: March 3, 2016
Accepted: April 7, 2016
Article in press: April 7, 2016
Published online: May 21, 2016
Processing time: 128 Days and 22.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a dynamic process by which mature epithelial cells lose their distinct characteristics and acquire a mesenchymal phenotype. EMT is characterized by loss of the expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin and up-regulation of the mesenchymal markers α-SMA, collagen I, vimentin and fibronectin. Our study provided evidence that QGHXR inhibits EMT in alcoholic liver fibrosis by regulating the transforming growth factor-β1/Smad signaling pathway and that QGHXR-mediated inhibition of EMT might be a promising approach to ameliorating alcoholic liver injury.