Si malat1

Human pulmonary alveolar epithelial cells was bought through the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) and maintained in Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium (DMEM) (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS), and 1% penicillin-streptomycin. The cells were grown in a 5% CO₂ incubator at 37°C. Transfection was conducted using a Lipofectamine^®2000 system (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.), as per established guidelines. The miR-194-5p inhibitor and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that targeted MALAT1 and FOXP2 were produced by Sangon Biotech Co., Ltd. Their sequences were as follows: si-MALAT1 (5′-CAAGCAGACAGC CCGTGCTGCTT-3′), si-negative control (si-NC; 5′-TTCTCCGAACGTGTCA CGTTT-3′), miR-194-5p inhibitor (5′-UCCACAUGGAGU UGCUGUUACA-3′), and negative control (NC) inhibitor (5′-TTCTCCGA ACGTGTCACGTTT-3′). FOXP2 was cloned into plasmid complementary DNA (pcDNA 3.1) (ov-FOXP2). The empty vector (ov-NC) served as negative control. 50 nM si-MALAT1, 50 nM si-NC, 50 nM miR-194-5p inhibitor, 50 nM NC inhibitor, 1 μg/μl ov-FOXP2, and 1 μg/μl ov-NC were added to HPAEpiC (2 × 10⁵ cells/well) for 24 h prior to conducting the experiments. After 48 h, 1 μg/ml LPS (Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Co., Inc.) was supplemented for 24 h. The LPS dose was chosen based on the results of previous studies (Xu et al., 2014 (link)).