Preliminary Study on the Relationship Between LncRNA GAPLINC Expression and Clinical Pathology of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Metastasis Mechanism

Background: Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) GAPLINC (gastric adenocarcinoma predictive long intergenic noncoding RNA) plays a carcinogenic role in a variety of different tumor types. It is deserved to explore the biological function of LncRNA GAPLINC in the development of esophageal cancer. MethodsTissues of 40 patients undergoing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) radical surgery were collected, including ESCC tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression of LncRNA GAPLINC and evaluate the relationship between its expression and ESCC clinicopathology. The expression level of LncRNA GAPLINC in human ESCC cell line (TE11) was detected by qRT-PCR. After specific siRNA interference, the expression of LncRNA GAPLINC was detected. The effects of LncRNA GAPLINC on ESCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion were detected by flow cytometry, cell counting kit-8 (cck-8) and Transwell, respectively.Results1. The expression level of LncRNA GAPLINC in ESCC tissues was significantly higher than that in the corresponding adjacent normal tissues (P<0.05). 2. The high expression of LncRNA GAPLINC in ESCC was correlated with the degree of tumor differentiation of patients (P0.05). 3. Compared with human esophageal normal epithelial cell lines, the expression of LncRNA GAPLINC was significantly increased in human ESCC cell line (P<0.05). 4. Cck-8 experiment showed that LncRNA GAPLINC overexpression increased the growth rate of cells (P<0.05). Transwell experiment showed that LncRNA GAPLINC overexpression increased the ability of cell migration and invasion compared (P<0.05). Annexin V assay showed that LncRNA GAPLINC silencing made apoptosis increase at the early stage (P<0. 05).Conclusions1. LncRNA GAPLINC was highly expressed in ESCC tissues and human ESCC cell line. LncRNA GAPLINC expression level was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation degree in ESCC. Our results suggested that LncRNA GAPLINC may be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis and monitoring of ESCC. 2. Downregulation of LncRNA GAPLINC in human ESCC cell line could inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of tumor cells. Our study revealed that LncRNA GAPLINC may play a role as an oncogene in ESCC and be a potential therapeutic target.