Sja-let-7 suppresses the development of liver fibrosis via Schistosoma japonicum extracellular vesicles
Fig 2
S. japonicum worm-derived EVs transfer sja-let-7 into HSCs and reduced their activation.
(A) TEM analysis for SjEVs. Black arrows indicate the cup-shape EVs. Scale bar, 200 nm. (B) NTA analysis for SjEVs. (C) Microscopy image of PKH67-labelled SjEVs (green) incubated with LX-2 cells for 2 h. White arrows indicate SjEVs labelled with PKH67. Scale bar, 25 μm. (D) Detection of α-SMA, Col1α1 and Col3α1 mRNA expression of the LX-2 cells (n = 3). (E) Detection of sja-let-7 in the LX-2 cells (n = 3). (F) Detection of α-SMA, Col1α1 and Col3α1 mRNA expression of the LX-2 cells (n = 3). All graph data are expressed as the mean ± SD of at least three biological replicates per group. *P< 0.05, **P< 0.01, ns, not significant. Abbreviation: Sj: S. japonicum; TEM: transmission electron microscope; NTA: nanoparticle tracking analyses; NC: negative control.