Fig. 2

NLRP3 was a target gene of miR-223-3p, and miR-223-3p was downregulated in PE placenta tissues. (A) The upstream regulatory genes of NLRP3 were searched by TargetScan, miRWalk and miRBase Screen. (B) The binding site sequences between NLRP3-3’UTR-wt/ mut and miR-223-3p in the dual luciferase reporter gene vector were marked with a red typeface. (C) The luciferase activity of HEK-293T cells were detected by the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay after transfected the NLRP3-3’UTR-wt/ mut /negative control reporter plasmid and miR-223-3p overexpression/miR-223-3p negative control plasmid, as well as the internal reference Renilla plasmid into it using lipo2000. (D) The expression of miR-223-3p in PE and normal pregnancy placenta tissues was detected by RT-qPCR. All data were expressed as mean ± SD; In Fig. 2C, the data were analyzed by Two-way ANOVA (Tukey’s multiple comparisons test), *** P < 0.001 vs. the NLRP3-NC + miR-223-3p-NC group, the experiment was lindependently repeated three times; In Fig. 2D, the data were analyzed by the independent sample t test, *** P < 0.001 vs. the normal group; N = 30. PE, preeclampsia; NLRP3, Nod-like receptor pyrin domain-containing 3; miR-223-3p, microRNA-223-3p; WT, wild type; MUT, mutant type; NC, negative control; UTR, untranslated region; RT-qPCR, real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction; SD, standard deviation