HAGLR and hepatocellular carcinoma: To elaborate the influence of HOXD-AS1 on HCC cell growth, HOXD-AS1 siRNA was transfected into SMMC-7721 or HepG2 cells, which presented with relatively higher level of HOXD-AS1 to decrease the level of HOXD-AS1 (Additional file 1: Figure S2a).