Upregulation of the Long Non-coding RNA PlneRNA-1 Promotes Esophageal Squamous Carcinoma Cell Proliferation and Correlates with Advanced Clinical Stage

摘要

Background Recent studies revealed that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play critical regulatory roles in cancer biology. PlncRNA-1 is ohe of lncRNAs that is associated with cell apoptosis and proliferation of prostate cancer. Aim This study aimed to assess the potential role of PlncRNA-1 in the pathogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Materials and Methods Quantitative real-time polymer-ase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression level of PlncRNA-1 in 73 pairs of ESCC and their matched normal tissues. The correlation of PlncRNA-1 with clinicopathological features and clinical stages was also analyzed. Cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis were assessed following knock-down of PlncRNA-1 by MTT, colony formation assay, and flow cytometry. Results The expression of PlncRNA-1 was significantly higher in human ESCC compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues (69.8 %, p < 0.05), and the high level of PlncRNA-1 expression was significantly correlated with advanced clinical stage (p < 0.01) and lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). Furthermore, knockdown of PlncRNA-1 reduced cell proliferation and increased the apoptosis in vitro. Conclusions PlncRNA-1 plays an important role in ESCC cell proliferation. Overexpression of PincRNA-1 is correlated with advanced tumor stage and lymph node metastasis, and may serve as a potential prognostic marker and therapeutic target for ESCC.