Therefore, we further discussed whether lncRNA UCA1 could control EMT of NPC cells. UCA1 in stage + IV of NPC tissues and in patients with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients at stage + and in patients without lymph node metastasis. Inhibition of UCA1 repressed proliferation, EMT, colony formation, invasion and migration while stimulating apoptosis of NPC cells. Conclusion: Our study suggests that UCA1 expression was overexpressed in NPC. Additionally, UCA1 suppression could inhibit proliferation, EMT, invasion and migration, and promote apoptosis of NPC cells. 0.05. Results Lncrna UCA1 is highly expressed in NPC tissues and NPC cells The expression of UCA1 in NPC tissues and their adjacent normal tissues was detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the expression of UCA1 in NPC tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (0.01; Figure 1a). Open in a separate window Figure 1. Expression level of UCA1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Note: A. qRT-PCR was used to detect the expression of UCA1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues and adjacent normal tissues; t test was used to analyze PHT-427 the data; N =?68; **, 0.01 vs. adjacent normal tissues; B. The expression of UCA1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells and normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cells was detected by qRT-PCR; **, BMP13 0.01 vs. NP69 cells; C. The expression level of UCA1 in CNE2 cells was detected by qRT-PCR; **, 0.01 vs. the control group; One-way ANOVA was used in comparison among multiple groups. After ANOVA analysis, the LSD-t was utilized for pairwise comparison; the experiment was independently repeated for three times. The expression level of UCA1 in CNE1, CNE2, HONE1 and C666-1 cells was significantly higher than that in normal nasopharyngeal epithelial cells NP69 (all 0.01), and the UCA1 expression level in CNE2 cells was the highest, so CNE2 cells were selected to perform functional tests (Figure 1b). The results of qRT-PCR indicated that in CNE2 PHT-427 cells, the expression of UCA1 in the cells of the si-UCA1-1, si-UCA1-2 and si-UCA1-3 groups was significantly lower than that in the blank group and the NC group (all 0.01; Figure 1c), suggesting CNE2 cells with low expression of UCA1 were successfully constructed. Among them, si-UCA1-3 was superior to si-UCA1-1 and si-UCA1-2, so si-UCA1-3 was selected for subsequent experiments, which was named as UCA1 siRNA. Expression of UCA1 is related to clinical stage and lymph node metastasis of NPC The relationship between the expression of UCA1 and the clinicopathological features of NPC was analyzed. The results demonstrated that the expression of UCA1 in patients with stage III-IV in NPC tissues was significantly higher than that in stage I-II(0.05), and the expression of UCA1 in NPC tissues with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients without lymph node metastasis >?0.05; Table 2). Table 2. Relationship between expression of UCA1 and clinicopathological characteristics of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. >?0.05), but the PHT-427 proliferation rate of the UCA1 siRNA group was significantly slower than that of the NC group, and the proliferation rate was decreased significantly (0.05; Figure 2a). Open in a separate window Figure 2. Effect of down-regulation of UCA1 on the proliferation and colony formation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. Note: A. MTT assay for the proliferation of CNE2 cells in each group; B. Detection of colony number of CNE2 cells in each group by clone forming experiment; *, 0.01 vs. the blank group; One-way ANOVA was used in comparison among multiple groups. After ANOVA analysis, the LSD-t was utilized for pairwise comparison; the experiment was independently repeated for three times. Colony formation assay was used to detect the change of cell colony formation ability in each group. The results suggested that there was no significant difference in cell colony number between the blank and the NC groups (>?0.05), but the colony number of the UCA1 siRNA group was significantly lower than that of the NC group (0.05; Figure 2b). It suggested that down-regulation of UCA1 could inhibit the proliferation and colony formation of NPC cells. Inhibition of UCA1 inhibits cell cycle progression and promotes apoptosis of NPC cells The cell cycle distribution of each group was detected by flow cytometry. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the proportion of G0/G1, S and G2/M cells between the blank and the NC group (>?0.05). Compared with the blank group and the NC group, the cells in G0/G1 phase in.