Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 20 pp 20198—20211
Silencing of long non-coding RNA MEG3 alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury by acting as a molecular sponge of microRNA-7b to modulate NLRP3
Figure 5. LncRNA MEG3 sponged miR-7b to upregulate NLRP3 to modulate LPS-induced ALI in mice. The pathological changes of lung tissues were observed after the HE staining (× 200) (A, C). The expression of NLRP3 normalized to GAPDH assessed by Western blot analysis (B). The expression of NLRP3, miR-7b and MEG3 in lung tissues of mice following different treatment protocols determined by RT-qPCR (D). The levels of cytokines IL-18 and IL-1β detected by ELISA (E). The pulmonary edema determination of dry weight and wet weight (F). The expression of caspase-1, TNF-α and IL-6 normalized to GAPDH detected by Western blot analysis (G). & p < 0.05 vs. normal; * p < 0.05 vs. si-MEG3 + NC mimic; # p < 0.05 vs. si-MEG3 + oe-NC. Measurement data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Data among multiple groups were tested using ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s post hoc test. The experiments were repeated three times independently. N = 10.