Fig. 2

Mature miR-18a and miR-18a precursor were both upregulated in HCC, but circRHOBTB3 was only inversely correlated with mature miR-18a. Mature miR-18a (A) and miR-18a precursor (B) expressions in paired tissues from HCC patients (n = 62) were analyzed by qRT-PCRs. Expression levels of mature miR-18a and miR-18a precursor in tissue samples from HCC patients (n = 62) were expressed as the average of three technical qRT-PCR replicates. U6 was used for normalization. ** p < 0.01. Correlations between circRHOBTB3 and mature miR-18a (C) or miR-18a precursor (D) were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient