Fig. 6

Circ-Ntrk2 might promote PAH through the miR-296-5p/TGF-β1 axis. a TargetScan, miRDB, miRTarBase, and miRWalk bioinformatics software predicted miR-296-5p target proteins. b Western blotting was used to verify the expression of TGF-β1 and p38 MAPK in lung tissues (n = 5) and PASMCs (n = 6) from the NOR, HYP, HYP + SI-NC, and HYP + SI groups. c TargetScan predicted binding sites and secondary structures of miR-296-5p and TGF-β1. d Dual luciferase vector and mutant plasmids were designed based on binding sites between miR-296-5p and TGF-β1. Dual luciferase assays were used to validate the interactions between miR-296-5p and TGF-β1 (n = 6). e Analysis expression of TGF-β1 and p38 MAPK in lung tissues (n = 5) and PASMCs (n = 6) after intervention of miR-296-5p. f Analysis expression of TGF-β1 and p38 MAPK in lung tissues (n = 5) and PASMCs (n = 6) after co-intervention of miR-296-5p and circ-Ntrk2. The gel or blot images have been cropped and the complete images have been submitted separately (Additional file 4). All values are presented as the mean ± SD. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01