However, the inhibitory effect of AMD3100 on CXCR4 significantly suppressed CXCL12 signaling-mediated recruitment of immune cells in HBV liver, and significantly disrupted the effect of CXCL12 on the self-renewal capacity of HBx-expressing cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) in HBV-related HCC (Cho et al., 2014; Wang C. et al., 2017). Here, CXCL12 is linked to cancer.