Figure 5. The role of miR-29b on changes in expression of extracellular matrix genes induced by chronic oxidative stress. To investigate whether miR-29b under chronic oxidative stress conditions could affect the changes in expression of several extracellular matrix (ECM) genes, three human trabecular meshwork (HTM) cell lines were transfected with miR-29b mimic or control mimic and incubated under oxidative stress conditions (40% O₂) for 4 days. The changes in expression of COL1A2, COL5A1, COL3A1, COL1A1, LAMC1, and SPARC compared to nonstressed controls incubated at 5% oxygen and transfected with control mimic were quantified by quantitative-PCR (Q- PCR). The figures represent the logarithm of the fold change in gene expression between cells incubated at 40% oxygen transfected with either miR-29b mimic or mimic control compared to control cultures (5% oxygen, mimic control) for three individual cell lines. Bars represent standard error from three different experiments. One asterisk means p≤0.05, and two asterisks mean p≤0.01.