Mir 125a mimic

siRNA against 3-hydroxy-3-methyglutaryl-coA reductase (HMGCR) and scrambled control (ctrl) siRNA were purchased from Shanghai GenePharma Co., Ltd. (cat. no. A10001). miR-125a mimic (sense, 5′-UCCCUGAGACCCUUUAACCUGUGA-3′ and antisense, 5′-UCACAGGUUAAAGGGUCUCAGGGA-3′), miRNA mimic negative control (miR-NC, sense, 5′-UUUGUACUACACAAAAGUACUG-3′ and antisense, 5′-CAGUACUUUUGUGUAGUACAAA-3′), inhibitor (5′-UCACAGGUUAAAGGGUCUCAGGGA-3′) and miRNA inhibitor negative control (miR-NC, 5′-CAGUACUUUUGUGUAGUACAAA-3′) were purchased from Guangzhou RiboBio Co., Ltd. siRNA (100 nM) and plasmid (1 µg/ml) transfections were performed using Lipofectamine 3000 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.). miRNA mimic (50 nM) and miRNA inhibitor (50 nM) were transfected into VSMCs cultured under HG or normal conditions (5.6 nM glucose) by using Lipofectamine^® RNAiMAX (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Western blotting and RT-qPCR analysis were used to detect the effects of gene silencing and miR-125a expression in VSMCs at 24 h after transfection (Fig. S1).