RESEARCH Open Access miR-125b targets erythrop e

MicroRNA (miRNA) expression deregulation in human breast cancer was one of the first to be described world-wide [1]. Among the most down-regulated miRNAs in breast cancer compared to normal mammary tissue there was microRNA 125b (miR-125b), suggesting a possible role for this miRNA as a tumor suppressor gene. Indeed, its expression was found to be reduced or completely lost in a variety of solid cancers including lung [2,3], hepatic [4], thyroid [5], ovarian [6], cervical [7] cancer, melanoma [8] and neuroblastoma [9] with the exception of gastric [10] and pancreatic [11] cancers in which it is up-regulated. A germline mutation in hsa-miR-125a locus, that lead to reduced levels of miR-125a (whose mature form is equal to miR-125b) has been de-scribed in breast cancer patients [12]