Jian Wu,1,* Lingyun Liu,2,* Huilin Jin,1 Qiao Li,1 Shutong Wang,1 Baogang Peng11Department of Hepatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Baogang PengDepartment of Hepatic Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, No.58, Zhongshan 2nd Road, Guangzhou 510080, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +860 208 775 5766Email pengbg@mail.sysu.edu.cn*These authors contributed equally to this workObjective: Emerging evidence has revealed that lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 3 (SNHG3) is involved in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in various tumors. However, the underlying molecular mechanism of SNHG3 in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is still not fully explored.Methods: Quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR was employed to detect the expression of SNHG3, miR-139-5p, and BMI1. Colony assay and MTT assay were used to detect the proliferation. Transwell assay was introduced to measure the migration and invasion ability. Bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay were used to confirm the relationship between SNHG3, miR-139-5p, and BMI1. An animal experiment was adopted to detect the function of SNHG3 in vivo.Results: SNHG3 and BMI1 were upregulated in HCC, while miR-139-5p was downregulated. Knockdown of SNHG3 or BMI1 and overexpression of miR-139-5p could inhibit cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in HCC. miR-139-5p was a target of SNHG3 and BMI1 was a direct target mRNA of miR-139-5p. Silencing SNHG3 could impair the tumor progression in vivo.Conclusion: The lncRNA SNHG3/miR-139-5p/BMI1 axis plays an important role in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in HCC.Keywords: SNHG3, miR-139-5p, BMI1, hepatocellular carcinoma