Figure 4.

Effect of miR-15b on the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway in hVSMCs. Mimic controls, miR-15b mimics, miR-15b inhibitors or inhibitor controls were transfected into hVSMCs for 48 h. Subsequently, mRNA levels of (A) AKT, (B) mTOR and (C) P70S6K, were assessed via reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction. (D) Western blotting was also performed to assess the protein levels of AKT, p-AKT, mTOR, p-mTOR, P70S6K and p-P70S6K. (E) p-AKT, (F) p-mTOR and (G) p-P70S6K were quantified and presented as the fold of control. All data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation. *P<0.05 and **P<0.01 vs. the control. miR, microRNA; PI3K, phosphoinositide 3-kinase; AKT, protein kinase B; hVSMCs, human vascular smooth muscle cells; p, phosphorylated; mTOR, mechanistic target of rapamycin; P70S6K, ribosomal protein S6 kinase beta-1.