Fig. 1

Activin inhibition attenuates TGFβ1-induced fibrotic responses and Smad3 activation in MC. Activin inhibition with follistatin (FST) decreases TGFβ1-induced: a FN, αSMA and CTGF upregulation at 48 h (n = 5), b Smad3 phosphorylation (pSmad3) at 24 h (n = 5), c Smad3 nuclear translocation as assessed using eGFP-Smad3 (n = 3; 25–30 cells quantified per treatment group) at 24 h, and d Smad3 transcriptional activity at 24 h (n = 8). e Time course experiments show increases in pSmad3 occur earlier (30–60 min) with TGFβ1 (n = 4) compared with actA (n = 4) or actB (n = 3) (18–48 h). *, **, ***, ****P < 0.05, 0.01, 0.001, 0.0001; one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s multiple comparisons post hoc test