Figure 3.

Assessing the absorption of exogenous miRNA in the intestine using an ex vivo everted gut sac. (A) The everted gut sac method was used to evaluate the absorption of plant miRNAs in the small intestine. An everted porcine gut sac was ligated and placed in synthetic miRNA or fresh maize juice solution, the medium was gassed by bubbling at 37 °C with 95% O₂ and 5% CO₂, and the liquid in the internal capsule was collected at different times. (B–G) The levels of plant miRNAs in the collected fluid of the internal capsule after the gut sac had been placed in fresh maize juice (B–D) or synthetic miRNA (E–G) solution. After 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 h, zma-miR164a-5p (B, E) (n = 12), zma-miR167e-5p (C, F) (n = 9) and zma-miR168a-5p (D, G) (n = 9) levels were evaluated by qRT-PCR. Statistical significance was determined by Student’s t-test (*P < 0.05).