Long non-coding RNA FENDRR inhibits cell proliferation and is associated with good prognosis in breast cancer

INTRODUCTION: FENDRR is a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) that mediates the modification of the epigenetic landscape of target promoters by binding to polycomb repressive complex 2. However, the role of FENDRR in breast cancer remains unknown. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We detected the expression of FENDRR in 52 breast cancer patients’ tissues and five breast cancer cell lines. The association between FENDRR expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis of breast cancer patients was also analyzed. Moreover, cell proliferation assays, flow cytometry analysis, wound-healing assays, and transwell migration assays were performed to detect the biological effects of FENDRR in the breast cancer cells. A xenograft model was used to explore the role of FENDRR expression on tumor growth. RESULTS: We found that FENDRR expression was lower in breast cancer cell lines and cancerous tissues than in the adjacent normal tissues. Low expression of FENDRR was associated with a shorter overall survival and a shorter progression-free survival in breast cancer patients (p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively). We found that FENDRR inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation and migration and promotes cell apoptosis, while FENDRR knockdown promotes breast cancer cell proliferation and migration and suppresses cell apoptosis. Finally, we also detected that FENDRR overexpression could inhibit tumor growth in a xenograft model. CONCLUSION: Our data suggested that FENDRR inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation, promotes cell apoptosis, and is associated with good prognosis in breast cancer. Thus, FENDRR plays an important role in the growth and progression of breast cancer.