IGF1 and Hepatic fibrosis: VEGF contributes to the process of liver fibrosis by promoting angiogenesis and activating HSCs (Yoshiji et al., 2003), TGF-β1 plays a critical role in inducing the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of hepatocytes and thereby promoting collagen synthesis (Gressner and Weiskirchen, 2006; Kaimori et al., 2007), and IGF-1 also stimulates collagen synthesis and HSCs proliferation (Scharf et al., 1998).