These results provide a clinical evidence that MAP2K3 may be a tumor repressor gene, and it is a direct target of miR-21 in HCC, indicating an underlying mechanism by which miR-21 is able to directly target MAP2K3 and inhibit its expression during the carcinogenesis of HCC, at both transcriptional and post-translational levels. Here, MAP2K3 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.