Figure 3.

The effects of let-7b-AEs on HUVEC activity

(A) AEs are not toxic for HUVECs. For toxicity studies, cells were cultured under normoxic conditions (20% O₂) (n = 5−10). (B) let-7b-AEs decrease caspase activity and increase proliferation in hypoxic (1% O₂) HUVECs (n = 5). (C) let-7b-AEs increase sprout formation on Matrigel (n = 5). Scale bars, 200 μm. (D) let-7b-AEs pass active let-7b to the cells and (E−G) decrease let-7b gene target expression. (E) Results are given for 60 nM let-7b-AEs. Relative expression was given as 2^−ΔΔCt (normalization to untreated group in D and to cel-miR-39-AE group in E−G). (D−G) n = 4. In all graphs, values are given as average ± SEM, and “n” indicates completely independent biological replicates. ∗p ≤ 0.05, ∗∗p ≤ 0.01, ∗∗∗p ≤ 0.001, and ∗∗∗∗p ≤ 0.0001. Comparison across subgroups was performed with Kruskal-Wallis test and between groups with Mann-Whitney U test.