4C-i-k). Pretreating BM-MSCs CM with IL1Ra neutralization Ab significantly masked BM-MSCs CM inhibition on CCL2, CXCL1, and CXCL2, suggesting that BM-MSCs exerted anti-inflammatory actions through IL1Ra inhibiting IL1 signaling to abolish the elevation of CCL2,

CXCL1, and CXCL2 blocking macrophage infiltration (Fig. 4D-l-n). Together, results (from Fig. 4) concluded that KO of AR in BM-MSCs led to more secreted IL1Ra that resulted in suppression of macrophage infiltration (anti-inflammation) and HSCs activation (anti-fibrosis) and then yielded better transplantation therapeutic efficacy to treat liver cirrhosis. To apply these findings in clinical application by targeting AR in BM-MSCs (mimicking genetic ARKO BM-MSC effects in treating liver cirrhosis), we applied the currently available agents, such as AR-siRNA and ASC-J9®, that

could degrade AR in selective cells with little side effects.34 We found ARKO with lentiviral AR-siRNA infection in primary WT BM-MSCs (or C3H10T1/2 MAPK Inhibitor Library and D1 Doxorubicin molecular weight cells) led to increased cell migration and proliferation (Fig. 5A-a-c,B). Similar results were also obtained when we replaced AR-siRNA with ASC-J9®. Results showed that ASC-J9® treatment in WT BM-MSCs caused elevated migration into regular media or to hepatocytes (Fig. 5C-d-f). ASC-J9® was also applied to WT BM-MSCs to determine its effect on WT BM-MSC self-renewal and proliferation potential, and results from the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) assay proved that ASC-J9® treatment led to enhanced self-renewal and proliferation in WT BM-MSCs (Fig. 5D). Zymographic analysis also showed that AR-siRNA or ASC-J9® treatment increased MMP-9 activity (Fig. 5E,F). Together, results (from Fig. 5A-F) conclude that targeting AR in BM-MSCs with either AR-siRNA or ASC-J9® yielded similar effects, when compared with BM-MSC effects isolated from ARKO mice, showing

better anti-inflammation and anti-fibrosis effects. With consistent in vitro results obtained (Fig. 5), it Protirelin was essential to test whether concordant outcomes could be reached in the in vivo mouse liver cirrhosis model. As expected, we found that lentiviral AR-siRNA infected BM-MSCs have better transplantation therapeutic effects in treating liver cirrhotic mice induced with CCl4 or TAA than scramble control BM-MSCs, when demonstrated using collagen deposition staining and expressions of fibronectin and α-SMA (Fig. 6A-a-c and Supporting Fig. 12A,B). This conclusion was further supported in liver functional assays in CCl4-induced liver cirrhosis mice (Fig. 6B-d-f). Similar results were also obtained in the TAA-induced liver cirrhosis mouse model (Supporting Fig. 12C). Consistent therapeutic outcomes in cirrhotic liver mice were obtained from ASC-J9®-treated WT BM-MSCs. Expression of fibrosis markers confirmed that WT BM-MSCs treated with the ASC-J9® suppressed liver cirrhosis better than vehicle-treated WT BM-MSCs (Fig. 6C-g-i and Supporting Fig. 12D,E). Liver functional assays showed similar results in the CCl4 (Fig.