Figure 5. Relationships among cholesterol loading, miR-143/145 expression, and VSMC phenotypic state.
(A). Mouse VSMC were treated as in Fig. 1. qRT-PCR analysis showed that cholesterol-loading suppressed the expression of both miR-143 and miR-145. (B) Mouse VSMC were pretreated with miR-143 and miR-145 before cholesterol loading, which significantly antagonized the down-regulation of VSMC marker Cnn1 and maintained expression of the regulatory factors Myocd (C) and Srf (D). *p<0.05, *p < 0.001. Data shown are mean ± SD of triplicates of qRT-PCR reactions and are representative of two independent experiments.