Fig. 7.

Bile acids modulate cell proliferation and viability in primary rat hepatocytes, in part, through miR-21. Primary rat hepatocytes were transfected with a miR-21 precursor and incubated with 100 μM UDCA, or DCA, or no addition (control) as indicated in materials and methods. miR-21 overexpression was assessed by real-time RT-PCR (top). Cell proliferation and viability were assessed by the MTS metabolism (middle) and LDH activity (bottom) assays, respectively. Results are expressed as means ± SE from at least 3 different experiments. §P < 0.05, *P < 0.01 and **P < 0.001 from the no-bile-acid pre-miRNA control. †P < 0.05 from the corresponding pre-miRNA controls.