Fig. 7.

miR-214-3p and Sufu gene expression in human arteries. Healthy and diseased femoral artery (FA) specimens from patients without or with peripheral arterial diseases were collected and subjected to RT-qPCR analyses (n = 15 for each group). a miR-214-3p (relative to U6, %) and Sufu (relative to 18S, %) gene expression levels in each specimen (dots) were presented here. Bars indicate the mean ± S.E.M. in each cohort. *P < 0.05 (Mann-Whitney U test). b Spearman’s rank correlation analyses. The solid line indicates the fitted linear regression line; the dotted line indicates the 95% CI level. R is Spearman’s correlation coefficient between the expression levels of miR-214-3p and Sufu. P is the P value indicating the significant level of correlation. miR-214 indicates miR-214-3p. c Schematic illustration showing the model of action for the miR-214-3p/Sufu/GLI1 regulatory axis in iSMC differentiation from AdSPCs and injury-induced neointima formation. Under physiological condition, AdSPCs differentiate towards contractile SMCs (cSMCs), contributing to normal vascular homeostasis, whereas upon injury or inflammatory cytokine stimulation, increased AdSPCs differentiate into inflammatory SMCs (iSMCs), participating in injury-induced arterial remodelling. miR-214-3p plays a dural role in these processes. It promotes cSMC differentiation from AdSPCs under normal physiological condition but prevents iSMC generation from AdSPCs upon injury, thereby inhibiting the neointimal formation