Fig 2: Effect of recombinant adenovirus siRAR-α transduction on Bax and Bcl-2 mRNA expression in PC12 cells after OGD treatment. *P<0.05 vs. RFP + ATRA + OGD. RAR-α, retinoic acid receptor α; siRAR-α, RAR-α small interfering RNA; ATRA, all-trans retinoic acid; OGD, oxygen-glucose deprivation; RFP, red fluorescent protein; Bcl-2, B-cell lymphoma 2; Bax, Bcl-2-associated X protein.

Fig 3: The PI3K/Akt/mTOR as a downstream signaling pathway of Hspa5 was inhibited and apoptosis was promoted by Hspa5 in H9c2. (A and B) Expression levels of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins, Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 were determined by western blot analysis and their grayscale scanning analysis (n=3 experiments). (C) The relative expression ratio of Bcl-2/Bax. NC, untransfected cells; control-siRNA, cells transfected with control siRNA; siHspa5, cells transfected with Hspa5 siRNA. **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 vs. NC.

Fig 4: The PI3K/Akt/mTOR as a downstream signaling pathway of Hspa5 was inhibited and apoptosis was promoted by Hspa5 in NRVMs. (A and B) Expression levels of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins, Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3 were determined by western blot analysis and their grayscale scanning analysis (n=3 experiments). (C) The relative expression ratio of Bcl-2/Bax. NC, untransfected cells; control-siRNA, cells transfected with control siRNA; siHspa5, cells transfected with Hspa5 siRNA. **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 vs. NC. NRVMs, neonatal rat ventricular myocytes.

Fig 5: The PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway and apoptosis-related proteins are regulated by miR-181b-5p in H9c2 cardiomyocytes. (A and B) The protein expression of p-mTOR, mTOR, p-AKT, AKT, p-PI3K, PI3K, Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3 and their grayscale scanning analysis. (C) The relative expression ratio of Bcl-2/Bax. NC, untransfected cells; miR-control, cells transfected with miR-181b-5p mimic control; miR-181b-5p mimic, cells overexpressing miR-181b-5p; control-inhibitor, cells transfected with miR-181b-5p inhibitor control; miR-181b-5p inhibitor, cells in which miR-181b-5p was knocked down. *P<0.05, **P<0.01 and ***P<0.001 vs. NC; #P<0.05, ##P<0.01 and ###P<0.001 vs. inhibitor control.