LncRNA LOC105372579 promotes proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in hepatocellular carcinoma via activating miR-4316/FOXP4 signaling

Background: Recently, a growing number of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified to be important for human cancer development. However, how lncRNA regulates hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression still remains largely unclear. We aimed to investigate the function of LOC105372579 in HCC progression. Materials and methods: The expression levels of lncRNA LOC105372579 in HCC tissues and cell lines were analyzed by qRT-PCR. The effects of LOC105372579 silencing on proliferation, migration and invasion were determined by using cell counting kit-8, colony formation assay and Transwell assay. Moreover, the xenograft mouse model was used to detect how LOC105372579 regulates HCC growth in vivo. Results: LOC105372579 was highly expressed in HCC tissues and cell lines. Moreover, upregulated levels of LOC105372579 predicted poor prognosis. LOC105372579 silencing suppressed the proliferation of HCC cells in vitro. We also validated that LOC105372579 knockdown inhibited the migration, invasion, and epithelial–mesenchymal transition of HCC cells. Xenograft assay demonstrated that LOC105372579 promotes tumor growth in vivo. Mechanistically, we identified that LOC105372579 is a sponge for miR-4316 and that FOXP4 is a direct target of miR-4316. Conclusion: Thus, our findings supported that LOC105372579 contributes to HCC cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and EMT by activating miR-4316/FOXP4 signaling.