Fig. 2

a Scheme of a macro-pathway including both the EphA2 and EphB2 pathways with their cross-talk links. Down-regulated and up-regulated miRNAs (miRs-31 and miR-423-5p) and their mRNA targets are colored in green, red and yellow respectively. b Summary table of Fold Change data with correlated P values shown in brackets of 8 Eph pathway-related miRNAs concordantly DE in human CRC (TCGA-COAD) and in both EphA2 or EphB2 murine CRC cells. In bold the miRNAs concordantly DE in hCRC and in both murine EphA2/EphB2 cells and tissues. *no -3p and -5p specification in miRNA nomenclature. Abbreviations: n.s., not significant. c qPCR analysis of miR-31-5p and miR-31-3p expression in normal colon mucosa (N), colorectal adenoma with low dysplasia (LD), colorectal adenoma with high dysplasia (HD), and adenocarcinoma (AC) human samples. Data are represented as the means +/− standard deviation (SD). Data are normalized by geometric mean of RNU48 and RNU6B. Statistically significant differences were calculated using Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. d EphB2 and miR-31-5p analysis on hCRC staging progression (AJCC stage, TNM stage, Dukes stage), metastasis, and differentiation grade. Dots indicate individual data points, and their distribution is represented by violin and box plots. The box plots show the interquartile range and median value of the distribution. Abbreviations: FC, fold change; MOD, moderately differentiated; MR3, metastasis or recurrence within 3 years. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001; Mann-Whitney-U test