STAT3 and peripheral arterial disease: A total of 35 biological processes were found to be regulated by the targets of hsa-miR-223-3p, which was upregulated in the femoral artery atherosclerotic plaques and plasma of PAD patients with CVEs, with some of them being associated with cellular response to insulin, regulation of cardiac conduction, response to growth factors, negative regulation of tyrosine phosphorylation of Stat3 protein, regulation of clathrin-mediated endocytosis, fat cell differentiation, and negative regulation of cell growth (Figure 6b).