LncRNA ANCR Suppresses the Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Through the Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway

OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to investigate the effect of anti-differentiation noncoding RNA (ANCR) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its potential molecular mechanisms. METHODS: The expression of ANCR was detected by qRT-RCR in both HCC tissues and HCC cells. Moreover, the relationship between ANCR expression and clinical parameters in HCC patients was investigated. The proliferation, cell clones, migration, invasion and apoptosis of MHCC97H and HCCLM3 cells were measured by MTT assay, colony formation assay, transwell assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The expressions of N-cadherin, vimentin, E-cadherin, cleaved caspase-3, Bax, Bcl-2, Wnt1, β-catenin and GSK-3β in MHCC97H and HCCLM3 cells were measured by Western blot. RESULTS: Our results showed that ANCR was lowly expressed in both HCC tissues and HCC cells. ANCR expression was closely associated with tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages and vascular invasion in HCC. ANCR could dramatically inhibit cell proliferation, migration and invasion, as well as promote apoptosis in MHCC97H and HCCLM3 cells. ANCR could significantly increase the expression of cleaved caspase-3, Bax, E-cadherin and GSK-3β but reduce the expression of Bcl-2, N-cadherin, vimentin, Wnt1 and β-catenin in MHCC97H and HCCLM3 cells. In addition, Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibitor (IWP-2) partially reversed the effects of silencing ANCR on the proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis of HCCLM3 cells. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that ANCR can suppress cell proliferation, migration and invasion, as well as promote apoptosis of HCC cells via modulation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.