Figure 3

Role of MAP3K9 in miR-34a-mediated apoptosis. The 3'UTR of MAP3K9 was identified as a putative target of miR-34a with a 7-mer complementarity region (Figure 3A). Quantitative PCR and Western Blotting of miR-34a- treated NB1691^luc and SK-N-AS^luc cells was carried out and both MAP3K9 mRNA transcript and protein levels were shown to significantly decrease relative to premiR-negative control-treated samples in both cells lines analysed (n = 3). Figure 3C outlines the possible mechanism through which miR-34a might mediate cellular apoptosis, targeting and suppressing MAP3K9 expression, leading to downstream reduction in JNK, p38, CREB and STAT3 activated protein levels (verified by phosphoprotein analysis Figure 2)