A. In vitro tubulogenesis assay of HMEC plated on Matrigel with donor U87, loaded or not (empty) with miR-5096 mimic (30 nM) or inhibitor (30 nM), just after plating (upper panel) or after 5 h of co-culture. Representative micro-photographs of endothelial tube formation (Bar 80 μm; n=3 experiments triplicate). B. Comparative effects of miR-145 and miR-5096. Histogram shows the number of branch points per field of view (at least 80 single cells were scored). Donor HMEC were loaded or not (empty; E) with miR-145 mimic (M; 30 nM) or inhibitor (I; 30 nM), and co-cultured with U87 for 5 h (left). Acceptor HMEC were co-cultured with donor U87 as described in panel A (mean ± SD; **P<0.01 vs empty; Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test; n = 3). C. miR-5096 did not affect the proliferation of HMEC (black) or U87 (dashed), when loaded or not (empty) with miR-5096 mimic (30 nM) or inhibitor (30 nM), and plated separately for 24 h in homotypic culture conditions (T0 initial time point of experiment; mean ± SD; P>0.05 vs empty; Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test; n = 3). D. miR-5096 did not affect the VEGF release by loaded cells. Same experimental conditions in panel C (mean ± SD; P>0.05 vs C non-transfected cells; Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test; n = 3).