To ascertain whether ATF3 silencing could affect the proliferation, apoptosis or inflammation in liver fibrosis, IHC for BAX (Supplementary Fig. 5a), qRT-PCR for Bax, Mcp1, Bcl2, and Pcna (Supplementary Fig. 5b), WB for BAX, PCNA, and cleaved Caspase3 (Supplementary Fig. 5c) were performed in the whole liver tissue. This evidence concerns the gene BAX and Hepatic fibrosis.