Fig. 4

MiRNA-21a-5p inhibition promotes skin and lung fibrosis in bleomycin-induced SSc mice. On days 14, 21, and 28 from the start of bleomycin injection, 100 μg miRZip-scrambled hairpin vector (scrambled anti-miR) as a control (n = 5) or anti-sense miR against miRNA-21a-5p (anti-miRNA-21a-5p), which inhibits miR-21a-5p (n = 5) in 1 mL saline was hydrodynamically injected into the mice. The mice were sacrificed on day 33 from the start of bleomycin injection, and histologic analysis was performed. a, b Representative images of the skin stained with hematoxylin and eosin and Masson’s trichrome (MT) a and lung tissue b of bleomycin-induced mice injected with scrambled anti-miR or anti-miRNA-21a-5p. The graphs show the skin dermal thickness a and pulmonary fibrosis score b. Original magnification: 100 × . Scale bar: 100 µm