Circular RNA hsa_circ_0004543 Aggravates Cervical Cancer Development by Sponging MicroRNA hsa-miR-217 to Upregulate Hypoxia-Inducible Factor

Figure 4

hsa_circ_0004543 increased the hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1α) expression by sponging hsa-miR-217 in CC. (a) Diagram of potential binding sites between hsa-miR-217 with HIF-1a (http://www.targetscan.org/) and mutation sites for the specific binding assay. (b) Dual-luciferase activity of SiHa and C-4I cells cotransfected by HIF-1a 3′UTR wild-type (WT) or mutated (MT) reporter with or without hsa-miR-217 mimics. (c) HIF-1a messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expressions in SiHa and C-4I cells after hsa_circ_0004543 silencing (si-hsa_circ_0004543) with or without hsa-miR-217 inhibitor (inh-hsa-miR-217) determined using qRT-PCR. (d) HIF-1α protein expression of SiHa and C-4I cells after hsa_circ_0004543 silencing with or without inh-hsa-miR-217 determined using western blot. (e) Relative HIF-1a expressions in paired CC and paracancerous (NC) tissues determined with qRT-PCR (n = 40). (f) Association between HIF-1a and hsa_circ_0004543 expressions in CC patient tissues investigated by Pearson’s correlation analysis (n = 40) ( < 0.05,  < 0.01, and  < 0.001).

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