Figure 6.

Vitamin D promotes miR-26b-5p expression to inhibit COX-2 in placental trophoblasts. (A) Protein expression of COX-2 in HTR-8/SVneo cells treated with VDR siRNA or miR-26b inhibitors for 48 h followed by the addition of 1,25(OH)₂D₃ at a final concentration of 100 nM. The bar graph shows relative COX-2 expression after normalized by β-actin in each sample from three independent experiments. *P < 0.05: 1,25(OH)₂D₃ + miR-26b inhibitor vs 1,25(OH)₂D₃ alone. **P < 0.01: 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treated vs control. ^#P < 0.05: 1,25(OH)₂D₃ + VDR siRNA vs 1,25(OH)₂D₃ alone. (B) VDR protein expression in the experiment described in A. The bar graph shows relative VDR expression after normalization to β-actin in each sample from three independent experiments. *P < 0.05: 1,25(OH)₂D₃ treated vs control. **P < 0.01: 1,25(OH)₂D₃ + VDR siRNA vs 1,25(OH)₂D₃ alone.