在東方的族群中，肝硬化是一發生普遍且嚴重的疾病，可因酗酒、肝炎病毒感染、藥物傷害及免疫系統之不正常等原因而誘發。過去的文獻報導肝硬化之發生，主要因肝臟中之星狀細胞被活化轉型而成為肌纖維化之細胞，此細胞大量在肝臟中增殖，破壞了正常肝組織的結構，使肝臟功能受損，最後演變成肝硬化。因此若能抑制肝星狀細胞的活化轉形及增生，即可有效抑制肝纖維化及防止肝硬化。所以本研究將大白鼠的肝星狀細胞培養模式，來探討絞股藍皂苷萃取物(GYP)對肝星狀細胞的增生，是否有抑制作用，並探討肝纖維化過程中，絞股藍皂瞽對於前膠原蛋白、轉形細胞生長因子(TGF-β1)、表皮細胞生長因子(EGF)等的mRNA，是否有調控作用。結果顯示：絞股藍皂苷明顯抑制肝星狀細胞增生現象，呈現劑量及時間效應，並明顯優鈴保肝西藥silymarin。另外絞股藍皂苷對於肝星狀細胞的表皮細胞生長因子(EGF)mRNA，具有明顯向下調控作用，此在抗肝纖維化過程中扮演重要角色，但是絞股藍皂瞽對於前膠原蛋白、轉形細胞生長因子(TGF-β1)的mRNA則沒有明顯抑制作用。

In East, the liver cirrhosis is a common and severe disease. The liver cirrhosis is a response to chronic liver injury of different origins of virus, alcohol, drug, toxin and immune disease. Increased deposition of extracellular matrix and reduced matrix degradation are the major character of liver fibrosis. Ito cell, hepatic stellate cell (HSC), the central role in the process of liver fibrosis, is the major source of fibrillar and nonfibrillar matrix. It has been shown in the present reports that the activation of stellate cells in injured livers leads to their proliferation and transformation into myofibroblast like cells. So inhibition of activation and transformation of hepatic stellate cell can to prevent the progression of liver fibrosis. In this study, we test the effects of Gypenosides on cultured rat stellate cells, assessed the antiproliferation activity of Gypenosides, and the mRNA of procollagen, transforming growth factor(TGF-β1), epidermal growth factor (EGF). Finally, we concluded that Gypenoside significantly inhibited HSC proliferation with a dose-dependence, and it's LD50 is 500ug/ml. Gypenoside also significantly inhibited HSC proliferation with a time-dependence, and its decrease was greater than those observed with silybinin. There was not significant difference for the mRNA level of procollagen type (Ⅰ)& (Ⅲ) in rat's cultured HSC between Gypenoside and silybinin treatment. Gypenoside has an antiproliferative and antifibrotic effect on cultured HSC, and it's possible mechanism is by means of downregulating the mRNA level of epidermal growth factor (EGF).