miR-16 directly targets BCL2 and decrease BCL2 expression. (A) analyzing the homology between miR-16 and BCL2 mRNA sequences. (B) Luciferase assay revealed reduced relative luciferase activities in 293T cells stably over-expressing miR-16 following transfection of BCL2 3’-UTR using pMIR and pMIR-REPORT vectors (P<0.01). FL, firefly luminescence; RL, Renilla luminescence. (C) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis showed that miR-16 inhibited the expression of BCL2. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01. (D) Western blot analysis showed that miR-16 led to obvious decrease of BCL2 expression.