Abstract: Objective To investigate the mechanism of effect of rosiglitazone (PPAR ligand) on rat hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in vitro. Methods The primary cultured HSCs were randomly divided into three groups: the control group, TGF-β1（5?g/L）group, TGF-β1 with 10?mol/L rosiglitazone group. Detecting the samples 48 hours after the HSCs were treated with TGF-β1（5ng/ml）and TGF-β1 with 10?mol/L rosiglitazone respectively: The expression of type Ⅰ pro-collagen was detected by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The expressions of SMAD3、SMAD4、SMAD7、α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and type Ⅰcollagen were measured by using Western blot assays. The expression of α-SMA was marked by immunofluorescence and observed under confocal microscope. The cell proliferation was determined with MTT colorimetric assay. Results TGF-β1 significantly increased the proliferation of HSCs and thus promoted HSCs to express type Ⅰcollagen and α-SMA（P<0.01）; these effects of TGF-β1 were suppressed by rosiglitazone（P<0.01）. The difference of expression of SMAD3、SMAD4、SMAD7 in each group was not statistically significant. Conclusion PPAR ligand can suppress the activation of TGF-β1 on HSCs.

Key words: Hepatic　stellate cells(HSCs), Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma(PPAR, ), Hepatic fibrosis