Fig. 2. MiR-297 alleviates LPS-induced inflammatory response and apoptosis of HUVECs. HUVECs were transfected with miR-297 mimics or miR-NC, and then administrated with 100 ng/mL LPS for 24 h. (A) The expression of miR-297 was measured by qRT-PCR. (B) STAT3, inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α), and adhesion molecules (ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin) were determined by Western blot analysis. GAPDH was used as an internal control. (C) The percentage of apoptotic cells was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining and flow cytometry analysis. (D) Apoptosis-related factors were measured by Western blot. Each experiment was performed in triplicate independently. Asterisks indicated statistically significant differences. Data was represented as means ± SD. * P < 0.001, v.s. control.