Figure 2

Overexpression of miR-21 promotes PA1 cell growth. MiR-21 expression was significantly higher in PA1 cells infected with pre-miR-21 (miR-21 OE) than in cells infected with control (miR-cGFP vector) constructs. Relative expression of miR-21 was detected with quantitative real-time PCR and the relative amount of miR-21 is presented as the value of 2^-ΔΔCt(A). Cell morphology and confluence of vector- or pre-miR-21-infected PA1 cells. Images were photographed on the fourth day of culture using a phase contrast fluorescence microscope (40×) (B). Cell growth WST-1 assays were performed at the indicated time points (one, two, four, six and eight days) and are shown on the X-axis. The Y-axis indicates the absorbance (Abs.) values (Abs. at 450 nm deducted from Abs. at 630 nm background readings). The results shown are from three reproducible experiments (C). ^* indicates significance at P values less than 0.05. miR, microRNA; OE: overexpression.