Fig. 3

BCL6 is a target of miR-144-3p. (a) The predicted binding sites for miR-144-3p in the 3′UTR of BCL6 and the mutant 3′UTR of BCL6 are shown. (b) Luciferase reporter assay was performed in HCT116 cells co-transfected miR-144-3p mimics or the control vector with BCL6–3′UTR1, BCL6–3′UTR1-mut. qRT-PCR (c) and Western blot (d) were performed to detect the mRNA and protein levels of BCL6 in HCT116 cells transfected with miR-144-3p mimics or the control vector. (e) Immunohistochemical staining with BCL6 in CRC tissue samples and the representative graph of expression levels of BCL6. Original magnification: 400Χ. (f) qRT-PCR showed the expression levels of BCL6 in 20 pairs of CRC tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues. β-actin was used as an internal control. (g) Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated a negative correlation between the expression level of miR-144-3p and BCL6 in 20 pairs of CRC tissues (R = − 0.827; **: P < 0.01)