Fig. 4

The potential target genes of miR-203. There were two putative target sites of miR-203 in the 3′-UTR of IGFBP5 and NUCKS1 mRNA (A). qPCR analysis revealed that the relative expression levels of IGFBP5 (B) and NUCKS1 (C) were significantly decreased by the miR-203 mimic (20 nM) and were significantly increased by the miR-203 inhibitor (75 nM) comparing with the negative controls. Data are mean ± SD (n = 4). **p < 0.01, *p < 0.05 relative to the negative control (two-sided Student’s t-test). The viability of HCE-T cells was significantly decreased by the IGFBP5-siRNA comparing with the negative controls (D). NUCKS1-siRNA had no significantly effect on the cell viability. Data are mean ± SD (n = 6). *p < 0.05 relative to the negative control (one-sided Student’s t-test). The luciferase reporter activity using a luciferase reporter plasmid containing 3′-UTR of human IGFBP5 was significantly diminished after the transfection of miR-203 mimic (E). Data are mean ± SD (n = 3). *p < 0.05 relative to the negative control (one-sided Student’s t-test)