HOXB8 and neoplasm: At last, the tumor xenograft experiments in nude mice were carried out for the detection of tumorigenesis of CRC cells involving the lncRNA MAFG-AS1/miR-149-3p/HOXB8 axis in vivo by subcutaneous injection of HCT116 cells (Fig. 6) and LoVo cells (Additional file 1: Figure S1) harboring sh-NC, sh-MAFG-AS1, mimic NC, miR-149-3p mimic, sh-MAFG-AS1 + inhibitor NC or sh-MAFG-AS1 + miR-149-3p inhibitor.