Fig. 1: Screening identifies IGFBP6 expressed in HSCs and regulating hepatic fibrosis.

a Volcano plot showing the distribution of DEGs. Yellow dots indicate significantly up-regulated genes, green dots indicate significantly down-regulated genes, and pink dots indicate non-differentially expressed genes. b Heat map of relevant DEGs between fibrosis and control groups. c Top 20 most significantly differentially expressed genes, with IGFBP6 showing the highest significance. d Validation using dataset GSE130123. CCL4-induced 4 weeks hepatic fibrosis model in mice. (control group n = 4, and fibrosis group n = 5). e IHC staining of COL1A1 and IGFBP6 in hepatic sections from control mice and mice at 4 or 8 weeks after intraperitoneal TAA injection (scale bar: 25 μm). Schematic diagram generated by Biorender (agreement number: AR28HM9B0Q). f Primary HEPs (n = 6) and HSCs (n = 6) were isolated from the same liver. The mRNA expression of mouse Igfbp6. g Primary HSCs were isolated from WT mice treated with three doses of vehicle (PBS, n = 6) or TAA (100 mg/kg, n = 6) every 3 days. Igfbp6 mRNA was measured. h scRNA-seq dataset (GSE221481) from mice with uninjured liver or TAA-induced hepatic fibrosis was analyzed for the expression of Igfbp6. The fraction of cells expressing Igfbp6 in different cell lineages in liver. Data are expressed as mean ± SD, unpaired Student’s t test, two-tailed.