Fig. 2.

Sponge effect was observed upon inhibition of individual miRNAs of the miR-183-96-182 cluster. LNA-based miRNA inhibitors effectively inhibited individual miRNAs of the miR-183-96-182 cluster and resulted in a sponge effect (A, B, C). Inhibitions of either individual or pooled miRNAs of the miR-183-96-182 cluster did not produce the sponge effect on nonmember miRNA of the cluster (D). Expression values of target miRNAs were normalized to those of the geometric mean of U6 small noncoding small nuclear RNA (U6 snRNA) and 5s ribosomal RNA (5s rRNA). Two-tailed Student t-test was used to detect statistical differences. Data are mean ± SEM of n = 3 (*P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001).