ShuXueNing injection alleviates liver fibrosis by inhibiting hepatic stellate cell activation and suppressing the EGFR/STAT3/HIF1A pathway

Abstracts: Background: ShuXueNing injection (SXN) is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine preparation for dilating blood vessels and improving microcirculation. However, the efficacy and mechanism of SXN in treating liver fibrosis (LF) remain unclear.

Methods

We intervened in the carbon tetrachloride-induced mouse LF model with SXN. After intervention, we collected mouse feces for 16S rRNA sequencing and serum samples to assess serological indices. We also collected mouse liver tissues for pathological and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. We conducted network pharmacology analysis to comprehensively identify SXN target genes against LF. Hepatic stellate cell (HSC) line LX2 was exposed to TGF-β1 and subjected to various concentrations of SXN. Total tissue and cellular RNA were extracted and analyzed by transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) and real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR).