CASP3 and hepatocellular carcinoma: In fact, we observed that the overexpression of HOXD-AS1 significantly abrogated the cleavage of caspase 9, caspase 3 and PARP in HCCLM3 cells treated by Dox (Fig. 6a), reaffirming the anti-apoptotic role of HOXD-AS1 in HCC cells.