Fig. 3

CircMTO1 acted as a sponge for miR-182-5p in AS. A Starbase predicted putative targeting sites for circMTO1 and miR-182-5p. B Luciferase activity in VSMCs co-transfected with miR-182-5p mimic and pmirg10-circMTO1-WT or pmirg10-circMTO1-Mut vector. C Effect of si-circMTO1 or circMTO1 overexpression plasmid on miR-182-5p expression in VSMCs. D Levels of miR-182-5p expression in serum of AS patients (n = 55) and healthy volunteers (n = 55). E Correlation of circMTO1 and miR-182-5p in serum of AS patients by Pearson analysis (n = 66). **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001