Figure 3.

Identification of miR-18a-5p target genes in HUVECs. A. Expression levels of miR-18a-5p in HUVECs transfected with lentivirus either overexpressing miR-18a-5p (OE) or miR-18a-5p knockdown (KD). B. Venn diagram and prediction legends of the target genes regulated by miR-18a-5p in HUVECs. C. Relative expression of putative target genes in HUVECs transfected with NC, miR-18a-5p OE or miR-18a-5p KD. D. Expression levels of TSP1 were measured via Western blot in HUVECs transfected with NC, miR-18a-5p OE or miR-18a-5p KD. E. Potential miR-18a-5p base pairing alignment with TSP1 (blue), as identified by starBase v3.0. A mutation in the putative binding site was also established (red). F. Luciferase activity in HUVECs co-transfected with miR-18a-5p mimics and luciferase reporters containing empty vector, TSP1-wt or TSP1-mutant transcripts. G. Scheme of the RIP assay of AGO₂-FLAG pull-down and RT-qPCR analysis of endogenous mRNA enrichment upon miR-18a-5p overexpression. H. QRT-PCR analysis of endogenous TSP1 mRNA upon immunoprecipitation of AGO₂-FLAG in one representative experiment of three replicates. Data were obtained from three independent repeated experiments. **P<0.05; n.s.: not significant.