SPARC and systemic sclerosis: In this study, overexpressions of both type I and type III collagen, and other ECM genes such as CTGF/Ctgf, SPARC/Sparc, TGF-β1/Tgf-β1 were observed in bleomycin-induced mice, SSc dermal fibroblasts as well as TGF-β1-induced cell model (Figures 1, 2, 4), however, Yiqihuoxue treatment could recover them to the normal levels (Figures 1, 3, 4).