Fig. 4.

MiR-424-5p targeted SMAD7 by binding to its 3’UTR. a The SMAD7 3’UTR was a potential target of miR-424-5p. MiR-424-5p mimics decreased luciferase activities controlled by wild-type SMAD7-3’UTR *p < 0.05, while did not influence the luciferase activities controlled by mutant SMAD7-3’UTR or miR-424-5p negative control. b SMAD7 mRNA and protein expression in EC-1 cells transfected with miR-424-5p mimics were detected by real-time PCR and western blot assay 48 h after transfection, EC-1 cells transfected with control oligotides or vacant EC-1 cells were used as negative or blank controls respectively. β-actin was used as an internal control. And the results showed that the mRNA and protein expression of SMAD7 were significantly decreased compared to those in control groups. *p < 0.05. c Expression of miR-424-5p mimics also enhanced the expression of E-cadherin and suppressed the expression of vimentin. *p < 0.05