Fig. 4

MSCs alleviated fibroblast proliferation and collagen synthesis in vitro via the COX-2-PGE2 pathway. To further explore the underlying mechanism, cardiac fibroblasts were induced by high glucose and cocultured with MSCs in vitro. Otherwise, MSCs were pretreated with COX-2 inhibitor adding PGE2 or not. The protein level of PGE2 in the supernatant was measured by ELISA (a). Cardiac fibroblasts growth rate was evaluated by CCK-8 assay to reflect fibroblast proliferation (b). Additionally, the protein levels of Collagen I (c) and Collagen III (d) in the supernatant were determined by ELISA to reflect the degree of collagen synthesis. n = 3, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.005, ***P < 0.0005, ****P < 0.0001