BMI1 and hepatocellular carcinoma: To explore whether miR-34a-5p is involved in FVTF-inhibiting HCC cell stemness, we transfected miR-34a-5p inhibitor into MHCC97H cells, and observed that miR-34a-5p inhibitor could antagonize the effect of FVTF on the formation ability of tumorsphere and soft agar colony, the percentage of CD133 positive cells, and the levels of CD44 protein and BMI1, OCT4 and SOX2 mRNA in the MHCC97H cells (Fig. 4E–H), suggesting that FVTF inhibits HCC cell stemness by upregulating miR-34a-5p.