Fig. 2

miR-145 negatively regulated AKT3 expression by binding to the 3′-UTR of AKT3. a Spearman’s correlation analysis of the correlation between the miR-145 and AKT3 mRNA expression level in ESCC. The expression level of miR-145 (b) and AKT3 (c) were detected with qRT-PCR in EC109 and KYSE-30 cells transfection with miR-145 mimics or miR-NC. d Western blot analysis of AKT3 and p-AKT in EC109 and KYSE-30 cells transfection with miR-145 mimics or miR-NC. e Quantification of relative protein level for Western blotting. f miR-145 and its putative binding sequence in the 3′-UTR of AKT3. g Luciferase reporter assay showed the luciferase activity in miR-145 mimics and AKT3 wild type/mutant co-transfected EC109 and KYSE-30 cells. All the results were shown as mean ± SD (n = 3), which were three separate experiments performed in triplicate. *p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01