Next, complementary DNA (cDNA) of miR-16-5p, miR-199a-3p, miR-199b-3p, miR-374c-5p, miR-6886-3p, and miR-6856-3p was synthesized using the miRCURY LNA RT Kit (Qiagen) following manufacturer’s protocols. The temperature profile for cDNA synthesis reaction was as follows: 42 °C for 60 min and 95 °C for 5 min.
Quantitative reverse transcriptase (qRT)-PCR was performed using the miRCURY LNA miRNA PCR Assay [31 (link)]. PCR cycling was performed as follows: 95 °C for 2 min, followed by 40 cycles of 95 °C for 10 s and 56 °C for 1 min. qRT-PCR were performed on the CFX96 Real-time PCR System Detector (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA, USA). Samples were run in duplicate for each experiment. To monitor contamination of the reagents, a negative control was included for each primer pair. Data were analyzed using the comparative ΔCT method (2−ΔCT), with RNU44 as an endogenous control [32 (link)].