Figure 5: Metformin reduces miR-21 expression through the TGF-β pathway.

(A,B,C and D) Western blotting analysis of the expression levels of TGF-β, PTEN and SMAD7 on HUVECs in response to metformin treatment and LY2157299 treatment. Control cells were untreated. Vehicle cells were treated with DMSO (0.05%). HUVECs were treated with 20 mM metformin and 10 μM LY2157299 for 24 h. β-Actin was used as a loading control. All graphs correspond to the blots above them and represent densitometric analyses of 3 independent experiments and are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *p < 0.05, experimental groups vs. control. #p < 0.05, experimental groups vs. respective vehicle.