“…After boiling at 100 • C for 5 min, the equal amounts of protein extract were electrophoresed in a 10% sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) at 80 V for 20 min and then 120 V for 1 h. Subsequently, the protein extract was transferred to PVDF membranes (Biosharp, Shanghai, China) at 220 mA for 60 min. After repeated washing using tris-buffered saline containing Tween 20 (TBST), the PVDF membranes were blocked with 5% bull serum albumin (BSA) blocking buffer for 2 h at 37 • C, and then incubated with primary antibody collagen I, 1:1,000; collagen III, 1:1,000; α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), 1:1,000; Epac1, 1:1,500; p-Akt, 1:1000; t-Akt, 1:1,000; p-PI3K, 1:1000; t-PI3K, 1:1,000; GAPDH, 1:2,500 overnight at 4 • C. Afterward, the PVDF membranes were incubated with a secondary antibody (anti-rabbit IgG, HRPlinked antibody, 1:5,000; anti-mouse IgG, HRP-linked antibody, 1:5,000) for 1 h at 37 • C (Wang et al, 2020b). Finally, signals were visualized using the enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) detection kit (Yeasen, Shanghai, China), and the relative protein abundance was measured by ImageJ image analysis software (version 1.44p, National Institutes of Health, United States).…”