The mechanism of melatonin attenuates activation of hepatic stellate cells / 安徽医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the inhibitory effect of melatonin on TGF-β1-stimulated HSC-T6 cells and its underling mechanism.Methods The HSC-T6 cells were divided into five groupscontrol group,model group and three experimental groups.After being cultured for 24 h,they were replaced with FBS-free medium and treated with transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1,5 ng/ml) excepted the control group,and melatonin was added immediately with different concentrations (1 nmol/L,1 μmol/L,0.1 mmol/L) in three experimental groups.After drugs incubation for 48 h,MTT assay was performed to assess the cell proliferation,immunocytochemistry were used to assess the expression levels of Smad2/3,p-Smad2/3.Results Melatonin could significantly inhibited cells proliferation simulating with TGF-β1 (P ＜ 0.05).The expression of Smad2/3 and p-Smad2/3 in TGF-β1-treated group were dramatically elevated compared to the control group(P ＜ 0.01).After being added with different concentrations of melatonin,the expression of Smad2/3 and p-Smad2/3 were strongly attenuated compared with the model group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Melatonin significantly mitigates HSCs'activation,which might be related to TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathway.