MEST and hepatocellular carcinoma: The expression levels of miR-335 significantly correlated with those of MEST in 21 HCC cell lines (Spearman’s rank correlation test, r=0.83; P=0.0001) (Fig. 5E), supporting the notion that the intronic miR-335 is co-expressed with its host gene, MEST, under the control of the host gene promoter.