Fig. 8

Inhibition of miR-143-5p increases NP cell proliferation and cell cycle entry by inactivating the AMPK signaling pathway. a The proliferation of NP cells from degenerative IVD treated with miR-143-5p mimic, inhibitor, or AICAR. b, c Cell cycles following treatment with miR-143-5p mimic, inhibitor or AICAR; AICAR was the activator of the AMPK signaling pathway; the experiment was repeated three times independently; data were expressed by mean ± standard deviation; data among multiple groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA; *, p < 0.05 vs. the control group (NP cells from normal IVD); #, p < 0.05 vs. the blank and NC groups (NP cells from degenerative IVD without transfection and transfected with NC sequence, respectively); miR-143-5p mimic group refers to NP cells from degenerative IVD transfected with miR-143-5p mimic; miR-143-5p inhibitor group refers to NP cells from degenerative IVD transfected with miR-143-5p inhibitor; AICAR group refers to NP cells from degenerative IVD treated with AMPK signaling pathway activator, AICAR; miR-143-5p inhibitor + AICAR group refers to NP cells of degenerative IVD treated with AICAR and transfected with miR-143-5p inhibitor. NC, negative control; OD value, optical density value; miR-143-5p, microRNA-143-5p; AMPK, AMP activated protein kinase; NP, nucleus pulposus; ANOVA, analysis of variance