Protein extracts were separated and transferred to a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane. First, the primary antibody was added to the membrane for overnight incubation at 37 °C. Then, horseradish peroxidase-labeled secondary antibody (ab205718, goat anti-rabbit or goat anti-mouse, 1:10,000, Abcam) was added for further incubation followed by visualization using enhanced chemiluminescence (Shanghai Baoman Biotechnology, Shanghai, China). The primary antibodies procured from Abcam (CA, UK) included KLF4 (ab215036, 1:1000, rabbit; ab214666, 1:1000, rabbit), α‑SMA (ab32575, 1:1000–1:5000, rabbit), PCNA (ab92552, 1:1000–1:10000, rabbit), MMP2 (ab92536, 1:1000–1:5000, rabbit), MMP3 (ab52915, 1:1000–1:20000, rabbit), MMP9 (ab76003, 1:1000–1:20000, rabbit), p-p38 (ab4822, 1:1000, rabbit), p38 (ab170099, 1:1000–1:5000, rabbit). In addition, GAPDH (ab181602, 1:10,000, rabbit, Abcam) was used as an internal reference, and the gel image analysis software was used for quantitative analysis.46 (link)