Abstract: Objective This paper intends to study the effect of paeonol on hepatic stellate cells activation and collagen synthesis,and further indicate the mechanism of inhibiting liver fibrosis,so as to provide new ingredients of the clear Chinese herbal monomer for anti-hepatic fibrosis. Methods In this study,TGF-β was used to stimulate and culture human hepatic stellate cells. Observing the effects of paeonol on hepatic stellate cell phenotype transformation and collagen synthesis to investigate the influencing mechanism of paeonol on anti-fibrosis in vitro.Real time fluorescence quantitative PCR and Western Blotting were utilized to detect the hepatic stellate cellular α-SMA mRNA expression,which can further clarify the effect of paeonol on hepatic stellate cell phenotype conversion in the case of TGF-β stimulation.Hydroxyproline assay method was used to detect the total collagen expression of cell culture supernatant. Results TGF-β stimulation inceased the a-SMA gene expression,and subsequently,adding different concentrations of paeonol decreased the a-SMA gene expression.The a-SMA gene expression had a certain dependency uponpaeonol dose. Hydroxyproline content in the hepatic stellate cell culture supernatant increased significantly in the case of TGF-βstimulation,and significantly decreased after adding different concentrations of paeonol. Conclusion TGF-βstimulation makes a positive effect on a-SMA gene expression,while the adding of paeonol has a negative effect.Paeonol may promote the fibrosis of hepatic stellate cell.Hydroxyproline content in the hepatic stellate cell culture supernatant increased significantly in the case of TGF-β stimulation,indicating an increase of hepatic stellate cells collagen synthesis.

Key words: Hepatic fibrosis, Paeonol, TGF-β, Hepatic stellate cell, α-SMA