Fig. 5

MiR-4428 enhanced the invasive capacity of PTC cells by regulating KLF9 expression. A The levels of miR-4428 in BCPAP cells treated with miR-4428 mimics were assessed by qRT-PCR. B Transwell invasion assay for the invasive ability of miR-4428-overexpressing BCPAP cells and C the respective quantitative analysis. Scale bar, 50 µm and magnification, 200× . D Three bioinformatics tools (TargetScan, miRmap, and microT, respectively) and the GSE165724 dataset were employed for the prediction of miR-4428 target genes. E The KLF9 level was analyzed in 512 PTC tissues and 337 normal tissues in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) datasets from GEPIA. F The correlation between ACTA2-AS1 and KLF9 levels based on information from the TCGA and GTEx datasets from GEPIA. G Analysis of the correlation between KLF9 expression and disease-free survival using the GEPIA tool. H Sequence analysis revealed that KLF9 harbors a complementary miR-4428 target site. I pGL3-KLF9-3’UTR-wt or pGL3-KLF9-3’UTR-mut was co-transfected with miR-4428 into TPC1 cells following which luciferase activity was measured. G pGL3-KLF9-3’UTR-wt and miR-4428 or miR-4428-mut were co-transfected into TPC1 cells and then luciferase activity was measured. K The KLF9 protein level was measured by western bot in miR-4428-overexpressing BCPAP cells. **p < 0.01