SMAD7 and type 2 diabetes mellitus: In order to investigate the effect of SSYX on MF in diabetic rats, Shen et al. (2014) adopted 40 mg/kg/d STZ combined with HFD to induce diabetic rats in experiment, and found that SSYX could alleviate MF and collagen deposition in T2DM rats, reduce the protein levels of TGF-β1 and p-Smad2/3 (marker of activation of the Smad signaling pathway), and increase the expression of Smad7 (an inhibitory regulator of TGF-β) in T2DM rats.