CXCL12 and hepatocellular carcinoma: Previous experimental studies have shown that PL can induce HCC SMMC-7721 cell apoptosis by inhibiting the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and inhibit HCC cell angiogenesis and proliferation through the SDF-1-CXCR4/CXCR7 axis (Wei et al., 2019; Zhong et al., 2019).