HDGF and liver cancer: In Wnt-inactive HLE and HLF cells, however, miR-129-5p and HDGF knockdown resulted in increased apoptosis and reduced cell viability, hinting towards Wnt status-dependent functions of miR-129-5p and its target gene HDGF. These in vitro results fully concur with our survival analysis of the TCGA liver cancer data set, demonstrating that high HDGF expression correlates with poor survival only in Wnt-inactive human HCCs but not in Wnt-active HCCs.