The downregulation of LINC00273 inhibits the proliferation, invasion, and migration of ovarian cancer cells in vivo and in vitro

BACKGROUND: This study sought to analyze long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) LINC00273 expression in ovarian cancer tissues, and to preliminarily explore its effect on the growth and invasion of ovarian cancer cells and its influencing mechanism. METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect the LINC00273 expression levels of cancerous ovarian tissues and their related cell lines. The ovarian cancer cells with the highest expression of LINC00273 were transfected with a knockdown lentiviral vector targeting the LINC00273 sequence and a negative control plasmid. The effects of the LINC00273 knockdown on the invasion and growth of these cancerous cells were evaluated by clonogenic assays, flow cytometry, EdU (5-Ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine), Cell Counting Kit-8, and Transwell assays. Western Blot was used to measure the LINC00273 knockdown effects on invasion and migration-related gene expression, and the knockdown effects on the ovarian proliferation ability of the cancer cells in vivo were analyzed by in vivo nude mouse experiments. RESULTS: LINC00273 expression was significantly more increased in the cancerous ovarian tissues than the adjacent tissues. The LINC00273 expression of the ovarian cancer cell lines was higher than that of the normal ovarian epithelial cells. LINC00273 knockdown greatly suppressed the proliferative and clonogenic function of these cancerous cells. The flow cytometry results revealed that LINC00273 knockdown notably induced G0/G1 phase arrest in the ovarian cancer cells. LINC00273 knockdown also promoted E-cadherin expression in the ovarian cancer cells, and inhibited vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and N-cadherin, expression to inhibit the invasion and migration ability of the ovarian cancer cells. The in vivo experiments indicated that LINC00273 knockdown suppressed in vivo cancer cell proliferation in the ovaries. CONCLUSIONS: LINC00273 is highly expressed in both ovarian cancerous tissues and ovarian cancerous cell lines. LINC00273 knockdown greatly suppressed the proliferative and invasive capabilities of the cancerous ovarian cells. In terms of the molecular process, it may be that the knockdown of LINC00273 promotes E-cadherin and inhibits vimentin, N-cadherin, MMP-2, and MMP-9 expression in cancerous ovarian cells.