Figure 3.

XIST serves as a ceRNA for miR-19 to regulate PTEN expression. (a), binding relation between miR-19 and XIST predicted on a bio-information website (http://www.mircode.org/); (b,c), binding relation between miR-19 and XIST identified by dual luciferase reporter gene assay (b) and RNA-pull down assay (c); (d), plot analysis of the correlation between XIST and miR-19 in 36 IVDD patients; (e), relative expression of miR-19 determined by RT-qPCR; (f), the binding relation between miR-19 and PTEN predicted via TargetScan (http://www.targetscan.org/vert_72/); (g), binding relation between miR-19 and PTEN identified using dual luciferase reporter gene assay; (h), plot analysis of the correlation between miR-19 and PTEN in 36 IVDD patients; (i,j), relative mRNA expression (i) and protein level of PTEN (j) measured using RT-qPCR and western blot analysis, respectively; Each experiment was performed three times independently. Data were analyzed by one-way, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. In panels (d) and (h), Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was utilized for statistical analysis, n = 45, *, compared to the empty vector group, p < 0.05, ^#, compared to the si-NC group, p < 0.05