PTEN and Cirrhosis: Interestingly, the miRNA-21 expression was significantly lower (25-fold) in cirrhosis than non-cirrhosis BA patients (− 0.8 ± 2.2 vs. − 5.3 ± 3.9; p = 0.004); whereas there was no difference of PTEN (p = 0.76) and α-SMA (p = 0.44) expressions between the two groups (Table 3).