Hepatic cellular microenvironment:a novel drug target for anti-hepatic fibrosis

To screen anti-hepatic fibrosis drugs,the relationship between hepatocellular microenvironment and hepatic fibrosis is analyzed and focused on hepatic stellate cells in this paper.Hepatocellular microenvironment is composed of hepatic stellate cells,extracellular matrix,matrix metalloproteinases,Kupffer cells and natural killer cells.Hepatic fibrosis is induced by the imbalance among the parts of hepatocellular microenvironment.So hepatocellular microenvironment should be a complex drug target for the treatment of hepatic fibrosis,and be applied to screen tranditional ethno drugs,which has the advantages of multi-target and multi-mechanism on diseases,to develop innovative anti-fibrotic drugs.