Western blotting showed that the ratio of phosphorylated Smad2 (pSmad2) to total Smad2 was greatly increased in CCl4-induced fibrotic livers, whereas immunization with HBcΔCTGF138–159 significantly abolished this increase along with inhibiting hepatic fibrosis (Fig. 6e). The gene discussed is SMAD2; the disease is Hepatic fibrosis.