Fig. 10

Working model showing that the Arecoline induces epithelial cells to release mir-17-5p enveloped exosomes, which could promote collagen contraction, secretion and migration after being absorbed by fibroblast. Mechanistically, it was demonstrated that miR-17-5p targets Smad7 and maintains TGFBR1 expression by inhibiting its E3 ubiquitination ligase WWP1, which promotes the expression of fibrosis hallmark genes