MED23 and Hepatic fibrosis: In our efforts to understand the molecular basis of liver fibrosis, we discovered that the Mediator subunit MED23 may act as a transcriptional “brake” for the expression of Ccl5 and Cxcl10 in hepatocytes as well as for the subsequent proinflammatory cascades, which curbs CCl4-induced HSC activation and liver fibrosis (Fig 7D).