It was also reported that NEAT1 could affect HCC through interaction with microRNA-129-5p (miR-129-5p) (Fang et al., 2017), which has also been proposed as a biomarker of liver fibrosis responsible for the activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and collagen synthesis (Chen et al., 2018). Here, NEAT1 is linked to hepatocellular carcinoma.