Fig. 5.

Identification of miR223 in targeting CLDN8 in colonic epithelial cells. a Regulation of the CLDN8 3’-UTR reporter by miR-223 mimics or inhibitors. Left panel: Targeting sequences of wild-type (wt) and mutant (mut) 3’-UTR of the human CLDN8. The mutated sequences are marked in red. Right panel: The gene activity was quantitated by luciferase assay in 293T cells. WT: wild type 3’-UTR; Mut: mutant 3’-UTR. b MiR-223 mimics downregulate CLDN8 in colonic epithelial cells. Left panel: qPCR; right panel: western blot. c MiR-223 inhibitors upregulate CLDN8 in colonic epithelial cells. Left panel: qPCR; right panel: western blot. d Upregulation of miR-223 in UC and CD. e Fluorescence in situ hybridization of miR-223 and immunostaining of CLDN8 in human IBD tissues and normal tissues (magnification × 200). f MiR-223 regulates TEER. *P <0.05, **P <0.01, ***P <0.001 as compared with the control