Fig. 5.

miR-21 downregulated SOX2 by directly binding its 3′-UTR. a Western blotting results showed that miR-21 inhibited the expression of SOX2 in gastric cell lines, while SOX2 mRNA levels were maintained in most groups. b Diagram of the SOX2 3′-UTR-containing reporter construct. Mutations were generated at predicted miR-21 binding sites located in the SOX2 3′-UTR. c Representative luciferase activity in HEK293T cells cotransfected with wild-type or mutated reporter plasmids and miR-ctrl or miR-21. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; NS not significant (P > 0.05)