Objective To investigate the effects of long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) FGD5-AS1 on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells through targeted regulation of miR-129-5p. Methods The expression of FGD5-AS1 in OSCC was analyzed by online database. The tumor tissues, normal tissues, and the human oral mucosal cells (HOK) and OSCC cells (SCC-9, HSC-4, SCC-25, CAL-27) cultured in vitro from 30 OSCC patients collected in our hospital were used as research subjects, qRT-PCR method was performed to detect the expression of FGD5-AS1 and miR-129-5p. The CAL-27 cell line with the highest FGD5-AS1 expression was randomly separated into Control group (normal culture, no transfection), si-NC group (transfected with si-NC), si-FGD5-AS1 group (transfected with si-FGD5-AS1), si-FGD5-AS1 NC inhibitor group (co-transfected with si-FGD5-AS1 and NC inhibitor) and si-FGD5-AS1 miR-129-5p inhibitor group (co-transfected with si-FGD5-AS1 and miR -129-5p inhibitor), CCK-8 method and clone formation assay were used to detect the proliferation ability of CAL-27 cells; the apoptosis level of CAL-27 cells was detected by flow cytometry; the migration ability of CAL-27 cells was detected by wound-healing assay; Transwell chamber was used to detect the invasion ability of CAL-27 cells; and dual luciferase reporter experiment verified the targeting relationship between FGD5-AS1 and miR-129-5p; the expression of high mobility group protein B1(HMGB1) was detected by Western blot. In vivo xenograft tumor model was constructed and divided into sh-NC group, sh-FGD5-AS1 group, miR-129-5p inhibitor group, and sh-FGD5-AS1 miR-129-5p inhibitor group. Tumor volume and tumor were detected. QRT-pcr was used to detect the expression of FGD5-AS1 and miR-129-5p in transplanted tumor tissues. The expression of HMGB1 and Ki67 was detected by immunohistochemistry. Results Database analysis showed that the expression level of FGD5-AS1 in OSCC tumor tissues was 4 times higher than that in normal tissues, and FGD5-AS1 expression was associated with poor grade in OSCC patients. Compared with normal tissues or human oral mucosal cells, the expression of FGD5-AS1 in tumor tissues and OSCC cell lines was significantly increased, and the expression of miR-129-5p was significantly decreased (P<0.05), the CAL-27 cells with the highest expression level of FGD5-AS1 were selected for transfection experiments. Compared with the Control group and the si-NC group, the apoptosis rate of the si-FGD5-AS1 group was significantly increased, and the OD value (48 h, 72 h, 96 h), scratch healing rate and the number of invaded cells were significantly reduced (P<0.05). MiR-129-5p was the target gene of FGD5-AS1. Inhibiting the expression of miR-129-5p was able to reverse the effects of interference FGD5-AS1 on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion of OSCC cells, thereby restoring the cancer-promoting effect of FGD5-AS1. After FGD5-AS1 was disrupted, HMGB1 expression was down-regulated by significantly enhancing miR-129-5p expression (P<0.05). In vivo experiments showed that FGD5-AS1 silencing significantly inhibited the growth and expression of HMGB1 and Ki67 (P<0.05), inhibition of miR-129-5p was the opposite; Inhibition of miR-129-5p reversed the inhibition of FGD5-AS1 on tumor growth and expression of HMGB1 and Ki67 (P<0.05). Conclusions FGD5-AS1 is up-regulated in OSCC cells. Interfering with FGD5-AS1 can inhibit proliferation, migration and invasion of OSCC cells and promote apoptosis by targeting miR-129-5p / HMGB1 axis.