Metformin Regulating miR-34a Pathway to Inhibit Egr1 in Rat Mesangial Cells Cultured with High Glucose

Figure 3

Activating AMPKα significantly reduces Egr1 expression (by western blotting) stimulated by high glucose in RMCs. RMCs were pre-incubated with 1 mmol/L AMPKα activator AICAR (+AI) for 30 minutes before stimulating with normal glucose (NG, 5.5 mmol/L glucose) or high glucose (HG, 30 mmol/L glucose). , versus RMCs cultured with normal glucose media. ^# versus RMCs cultured with high glucose media. All results represent means  SD obtained from three independent experiments in triplicate and normalized to GAPDH. AICAR: 5-amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide riboside-1-b-D-ribofuranoside; Egr1: early growth response factor 1; p-AMPKα: phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase α; AMPKα: adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase α; GAPDH: glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase.