Figure 7.

Knockdown of circHecw2 inhibits the EndoMT in vivo. (A) Schematic diagram presents the procedure for microinjection of circHecw2 siRNA lentivirus prior to LPS treatment in mice. (B) Representative images of C57BL/6J mice bilaterally microinjected with siRNA-GFP lentivirus (1 μl of 10⁹ viral genomes μl⁻¹) in the hippocampus. Scale bar: 200 μm. (C) circHecw2 siRNA lentivirus injection successfully decreased circHecw2 expression. Two wk after the microinjection, mice were sacrificed and assessed regarding the circHecw2 level as determined via real-time PCR. n = 6 animals/group. *P<0.05 vs. circCon using the Mann-Whitney test. (D to G) Microinjection of C57BL/6J mice with circHecw2 siRNA lentivirus significantly inhibited the LPS-induced decreases in the TJP expression levels (D and E) and the increases in the mesenchymal cell marker expression (F and G). Mice were microinjected with the circHecw2 siRNA or circCon siRNA lentivirus for 2 wk and were subsequently treated with LPS (0.83 mg/kg) once per day for 7 d. n = 6 animals/group. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 vs. the saline-treated circCon siRNA group. ^#P<0.05, ^##P<0.01,^###P<0.001 vs. the LPS-treated circCon siRNA group via one-way ANOVA followed by the Holm-Sidak test.