However, in rat activated HSCs with miR-199a-3p mimics transfection, only the protein of p-SMAD2/3, CTGF slightly increased with little changes of FN and α-SMA (Supplementary Fig. 1D), possibly because the sufficiently activated rat-HSCs we adopted actually express an extremely high level of miR-199a-3p and fibrotic markers, and it could not be further induced, reflecting the fact that the regulation of miR-199a-3p is not unlimited, and the possible existence of some negative feedback loops to suppress the function of miR-199a-3p in liver fibrosis. Here, SMAD2 is linked to Hepatic fibrosis.