Figure 5

Andrographolide reduces expression of pro-fibrotic factors and collagen type I in mdx mice. Fibrosis was augmented as explained in the legend of Figure 1. During this period, mice were treated with 1 mg/kg andrographolide or vehicle (intraperitoneal (ip) injections three times per week, four animals per group). (A) Transforming growth factor type beta (TGF-β1), (B) Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and (C) collagen type I mRNA levels were determined in tibialis anterior (TA) muscle from wild type (WT), vehicle-treated mdx mice, and andrographolide-treated mdx mice by qPCR using GAPDH as a reference gene. Values correspond to the mean dCT value ± SD of three independent experiments, normalized to WT levels (*P < 0.05 relative to WT mice; #P < 0.05 relative to vehicle-treated mdx mice). The recovery scores for TGF-β1 and CTGF were 56.3% and 63.2 respectively.