Transcriptomic analysis of targets regulated by miR-125b in primary endothelial cells

Human vein umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC) were transfected with pre-miR control and pre-miR 125b (Ambion) in order to identify targets (direct and indirect) downregulated by miR-125b in endothelial cells. 317 transcripts were downregulated with a fold change ≥ 1.5, among which 99 are predicted direct targets of mir-125b. Computional approach performed with Ingenuity Pathway Knowledge shows that movement of cell and cell-to-cell signalling are the top two biological functions affected bewteen control and transfected cells. Experiments performed in zebrafish and in HUVEC confirmed that mir-125b mainly affects genes involved in cellular movements and junctions. Total RNA was obtained from cells transfected in HUVEC with pre-miR control and pre-miR 125b. Three independent transfections were performed for each condition.