Correlation of long non-coding RNA H19 expression with cisplatin-resistance and clinical outcome in lung adenocarcinoma

The acquired drug resistance would influence the efficacy of cisplatin-based chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer. The present study aimed to investigate the correlation of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) H19 with cisplatin-resistance and clinical outcome in lung adenocarcinoma. In our study, the expression of H19 in cisplatin-resistant A549/DDP cells was unregulated. Knockdown of H19 restored the response of A549/DDP cells to cisplatin. H19-mediated chemosensitivity enhancement was associated with metastasis, induction of G0/G1 cell-cycle arrest, cell proliferation, and increased apoptosis. Furthermore, lncRNA H19 expression was significantly related to TNM stage and metastasis (P = 0.012). Overexpression of H19 was negatively correlated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy response in patients. Patients with high H19 expression exhibited a significantly shorter median progression-free survival (PFS) [4.7 months] than the low-expression patients (6.3months) [P = 0.002]. In summary, H19-mediated regulation of cisplatin resistance in human lung adenocarcinoma cells is demonstrated for the first time. H19 could potentially serve as a molecular marker to predict the clinical outcomes of lung adenocarcinoma patients.