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. 2019 Mar 29;14(3):e0214301. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0214301

Fig 4. miR-451a inhibits myoblast differentiation by suppressing SPARC expression.

Fig 4

(A) RT-qPCR analysis of Sparc and Myog mRNAs during C2C12 cell differentiation. (B) Western blot analysis of SPARC in C2C12 cells in proliferating phase and 6 days in differentiated medium. (C) Western blot analysis of the levels of SPARC and loading control HSP90 in C2C12 cells transfected with Ctrl siRNA or miR-451a. The relative intensities of the SPARC bands were quantified, normalized to the intensities of the HSP90 bands, and were represented as the means ± SEM. (D) Analysis of creatine kinase activity in differentiated C2C12 myoblasts transfected with either Ctrl siRNA, miR-451a or SPARC siRNA. (E) Proposed model of miR-451a influencing SPARC expression. miR-451a can inhibit SPARC expression by moderately lowering Sparc mRNA levels robustly inhibiting the translation of Sparc mRNA. We propose that by inhibiting SPARC biosynthesis, miR-451a suppresses myogenesis. Data in panel A-D represent the means ± SEM from 3–4 independent experiments. Significance (P) is indicated.