Figure 4.

Effects of Smad7 gene introduction on expression of CTGF by cultured SCFs. As for the expression of CTGF, mRNA expression detected by real-time RT-PCR indicate suppression of its expression by Smad7 gene transfer (A) and its protein expression was revealed by immunostaining (B). Immunoreactivity for CTGF was detected in a few cells in the control culture (B, TGFβ1 and Smad7-Ad negative) and strong intense reactivity was seen in the cells treated with TGFβ1 (B, TGFβ1 positive and Smad7-Ad negative). Smad7 gene introduction decreased immunoreactivity for CTGF in the cells in the absence (B, TGFβ1 negative and Smad7-Ad positive) and presence (B, TGFβ1 positive and Smad7-Ad positive) of TGFβ1. The scale bar represents 10 μm.