SMAD3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: We also showed that in both human HCC biopsies and LmiR21 + Dox fish, an inverse expression between miR-21 expression and the PTS regulatory proteins Ptenb, p-Akt, Smad7, P-Smad3 and p-Stat3 was observed (Figure 8A–C), which are also involved in fatty acid synthesis and metabolism.