Glioma development is an extremely complex process with changes occurring in numerous genes. HOXD antisense growth-associated long non-coding RNA (HOXD-AS1), an important long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), is known to regulate metastasis-related gene expression in bladder cancer, ovarian cancer and neuroblastoma. Here, we elucidated the function and possible molecular mechanisms of lncRNA HOXD-AS1 in human glioma cells. Our results proved that HOXD-AS1 expression was upregulated in glioma tissues and in glioma cell lines. HOXD-AS1 overexpression promoted cell migration and invasion in vitro, whereas knockdown of HOXD-AS1 expression repressed these cellular processes. Mechanistic studies further revealed that HOXD-AS1 could compete with the transcription factor E2F8 to bind with miR-130a, thus affecting E2F8 expression. Additionally, reciprocal repression was observed between HOXD-AS1 and miR-130a, and miR-130a mediated the tumor-suppressive effects of HOXD-AS1 knockdown. Taken together, these results provide a comprehensive analysis of the role of HOXD-AS1 in glioma cells and offer important clues to understand the key roles of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanisms in human glioma. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.