TGF-β1 mediates lncRNA GAPLINC expression to promote the migration and invasion of non-small cell lung cancer

Purpose: The present study aims to investigate the involvement of lncRNA GAPLINC in non-small lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients and methods: The study included 70 patients with NSCLC (39 males and 31 females, 33 to 68 years, 49.3 ± 6.4 years). RT-qPCR, transient cell transfections, measurement of in vitro cell migration and invasion abilities and western blot were carrying out during the research. Results: We showed that GAPLINC was up-regulated in NSCLC tissues and positively correlated with TGF-β1. In vitro cell experiment showed that over-expression of TGF-β1 significantly up-regulated the expression of GAPLINC, while over-expression of GAPLINC failed to affect TGF-β1. Follow-up study showed that high GAPLINC level in NSCLC tissue was closely correlated with poor survival rate of NSCLC patients. Over-expressions of TGF-β1 and GAPLINC resulted to accelerated migration and invasion of NSCLC cells. In addition, the silencing of GAPLINC siRNA attenuated the effect of TGF-β1 treatment. Conclusion: TGF-β1 may mediate lncRNA GAPLINC expression to promote NSCLC cell invasion and migration.