MTT assay was performed to determine the effect of STARD10, ERBB2 and ethanol on cell proliferation, which revealed that STARD10 overexpression enhanced the viability of the mammary tumor cells compared to control in a manner similar to ethanol administration and ERBB2 overexpression (Fig. 7a and Additional file 6: Figure S4B). Here, STARD10 is linked to breast cancer.