LncRNA GATA6-AS inhibits cancer cell proliferation and promotes cancer cell apoptosis in cervical cancer by down-regulating miR-205

BACKGROUND: Dysregulated endothelial cell growth is involved in many types of human cancer, including cervical cancer. LncRNA GATA6-AS was reported to regulate endothelial cell growth, suggesting it might involve in cervical cancer. Our study was carried out to explore the involvement of GATA6-AS in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC), a subtype of cervical cancer. METHODS: To explore the expression of GATA6-AS, RT-qPCR was performed to detect GATA6-AS in plasma of 65 CSCC patients and 58 healthy females. To detect the expression of GATA6-AS, total RNAs were extracted. RESULTS: We found that plasma GATA6-AS expression was down-regulated in CSCC patients than that in healthy females, and HPV infection did not significantly affect the plasma expression of GATA6-AS. Moreover, we found that plasma GATA6-AS showed diagnostic values for CSCC by performing ROC curve analysis. The expression of miR-205 in plasma was also found to be up-regulated in CSCC patients than that in healthy females and inversely correlated with the expression of GATA6-AS in CSCC patients. Furthermore, over-expression of miR-205 did not significantly affect the expression of GATA6-AS in CSCC cells, while over-expression of GATA6-AS down-regulated miR-205 expression. In addition, GATA6-AS over-expression inhibited CSCC cell proliferation and promoted CSCC cell apoptosis, while miR-205 over-expression played opposite roles and attenuated the effects of GATA6-AS over-expression on CSCC cells. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results suggest that GATA6-AS may inhibit cell proliferation and promote cell apoptosis in CSCC by down-regulating miR-205.