Figure 4.

Overexpression of miR-221 or miR-222 has negative effect on angiogenesis. (a) Representative photomicrographs showing the effect of miR-222 overexpression on tube formation using human umbilical vein endothelial cell line. Tube formation can be assessed using four parameters including cell covered area (blue), tubes (red), loops (yellow), and branching points (white). (b) Representative bar graph showing the effect of miR-222 on tube formation. Overexpression of miR-222 significantly reduced total tube length compared to untransfected cells (negative control (NC)), cells transfected with transfection reagent only or cells cotransfected with miR-222 and its inhibitor. Both untransfected and miR-222-transfected cells were then treated with sunitinib and showed decrease in total tube length compared to cells transfected with the miR-222 only. Data are the means ± SEM of three independent experiments (*P < 0.05 and **P < 0.01).