Fig. 1

NaB, a metabolite of intestinal microbiota, inhibited TGFβ1-induced proliferation, migration, and transdifferentiation of CFs into MFs. (A) Observation of CFs morphology under a microscope, and immunofluorescence labelling of vimentin and α-SMA protein (B) Immunofluorescence labelling of α-SMA protein; (C) ELISA to measure the expression levels of IL-6 and IL-10; (D) CCK-8 assay to evaluate cell proliferation; (E) Cell scratch test to assess cell migratory rate. The experiment was repeated three times. The data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation, with one-way ANOVA used for data comparisons among multiple groups, and Tukey’s multiple comparisons test used for post hoc testing. * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01