Fig. 4
From: RNA binding protein HuR protects against NAFLD by suppressing long noncoding RNA H19 expression
HuR is a suppressor of lncRNA H19 transcription. a Relative mRNA levels of lncRNA H19 in the liver of NASH patients and healthy controls were determined by real-time RT–PCR. Statistical significance relative to healthy control, *p < 0.05 (n = 8–10). b Relative mRNA levels of H19 in the liver of mice fed a WDSW or control diet for 21 weeks. Statistical significance relative to control mice, *p < 0.05 (n = 5). c H19 count from the publically available RNAseq data set (GSE143358) in liver-specific HuR knockout mice; H19 count from the most recent study (GSE197884) in a newly developed preclinical NASH–HCC model with C57/BL6NJ mice. Statistical significance relative to control mice, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.001 (n = 3). d Relative mRNA levels of H19 in the liver of HuRhKO and control mice fed with WDSW for 4 weeks. Statistical significance relative to control mice, ***p < 0.001 (n = 10–12). e Effect of HuR on H19 promoter activity. HEK-293 cells were transfected with pGL3-human H19-promoter or pGL3-control vector together with pcDNA3-TAP-human HuR or pcDNA3-TAP vector along with Renilla control vector. After transfection for 48 h, the luciferase activities were measured using a dual-luciferase reporter assay kit. The promoter activity was expressed by relative luciferase activity using the ratio of firefly luciferase activity to Renilla luciferase activity. Statistical significance relative to control, ***p < 0.001 (n = 5). f Representative image of the liver and the liver sections stained with H&E and Oil red O staining (scale bar, 50 µm for 20 × magnification) in H19−/− and WT mice fed with WDSW for 4 weeks