PTEN regulations by miRNAs in SS patients. (A) Densitometric values calculated as PTEN/actin showed a PTEN protein reduction in pre–miR-21, pre–miR-106b, and pre–miR-486 transfected H9 cells vs fluorescein-scrambled oligo used as control. Data are given as mean ± SD from 9 independent experiments (*P = .02, **P = .006). (B) Western blotting analysis performed in pre-miRNAs and anti-miRNAs transfected H9 cells showed a reduction or increase in PTEN protein level, respectively. Two of 9 representative electrophoretic patterns are shown. (C-D) A significant inverse relationship between PTEN and miR-106b was observed comparing their mRNA levels measured by qRT-PCR in 9 SS patients with a +/+ PTEN status (R= −0.79, P = .01 for Pearson correlation test). (E) An inverse correlation between PTEN protein levels and miR-106b was also observed in 4 samples simultaneously analyzed by Western blotting and qRT-PCR (R= −0.96, P = .04 for Pearson correlation test).