A total RNA purification kit (RNeasy) and RNase-free DNase were purchased from Qiagen (Hilden, Germany), Taq polymerase was purchased from Promega (Mannheim, Germany), and reverse transcriptase (Superscript II) was purchased from Invitrogen (Karlsruhe, Germany). Antibodies raised against the following proteins were used: α-SMA, tubulin (Sigma, St. Louis, MO), active p38 (Promega), total p38 (NEB, Frankfurt, Germany), active Smad-2/3 (Zymed/Zytomed, Berlin, Germany), total Smad-2/3 (Chemicon, Temecula, CA), conjugated goat anti-mouse (Alexa-488; Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR), and horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibodies (Jackson/Dianova, Hamburg, Germany). Recombinant TGF-β1 was obtained from Tebu-Bio (Offenbach, Germany) and was used at 2 ng/mL (final concentration) in all experiments. Lovastatin and mevalonate were from Sigma, and FTI 287 and GGTI 286 were purchased from Merck Biosciences (Bad Soden, Germany).