SMAD3 and Hepatic fibrosis: As crosstalk between SMAD3 and STAT3 in numerous biological functions is well documented, and because TGFβ1 can activate STAT3, which also has a role in liver fibrosis (Tang et al., 2017; Itoh et al., 2018; Xiang et al., 2018), we hypothesized that STAT3 may contribute to the antifibrotic effects of rottlerin.