SMAD3 and cervical cancer: Having demonstrated that miR-27a suppresses cervical cancer progression by inhibiting TGF-βRI expression and TGF-β signaling in cervical cancer, we further investigated the expression of miR-27a, TGF-βRI, SMAD2, SMAD3, and p-SMAD3 in the normal cervix (N = 76) and in cervical cancer tissues (N = 99, Fig. 5a).