These findings were further verified by the results of western blot analyses, which revealed that over-expression of miR-125a could markedly suppress MMP11 and VEGF, but not ERBB2 or ERBB3, expression in HepG2 and HCC-LM3 cells, and down-regulation of miR-125a could obviously increase the expression of MMP11 and VEGF in SMMC-7721 cells (Figure 5E). This evidence concerns the gene ERBB3 and hepatocellular carcinoma.