Abstract
BackgroundPrevious studies indicated that lncRNA taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) played essential roles in human cancers. This study aimed to investigate its function in infantile hemangioma (IH).MethodsA total of 30 pairs of clinical infantile specimens were used in this study. The expression of TUG1 in IH tissues was assessed by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR). Two short hairpin RNA targeting TUG1 (sh-TUG1-1 and sh-TUG1-2) were transfected into hemangioma-derived endothelial cells, HemECs, to block its expression. The effects of TUG1 on HemECs were evaluated by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8), colony formation assay, wound healing assay, and Transwell assay. The underlying molecular mechanism of TUG1 was investigated by Starbase prediction and luciferase reporter assay and further determined by loss- and gain-of-function approaches. In addition, the role of TUG1 on tumorigenesis of HemECs was confirmed in an in vivo mouse model.ResultsTUG1 was significantly upregulated in infant hemangioma tissues compared with normal adjacent subcutaneous tissues. The loss- and gain-of-function approaches indicated that TUG1 overexpression promoted proliferation, migration, and invasion of HemECs in vitro, and TUG1 knockdown inhibited the tumorigenesis of HemECs in vivo. Specifically, TUG1 could compete with IGFBP5 for miR137 binding. Rescue experiments further confirmed the role of the TUG1/miR137/IGFBP5 axis in HemECs.ConclusionTUG1 was closely associated with the progression of IH by regulating the miR-137/IGFBP5 axis, which might be a potential target for IH treatment.
Highlights
Previous studies indicated that lncRNA taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) played essential roles in human cancers
TUG1 was highly expressed in infantile hemangioma (IH) tissues To explore the role of TUG1 in IH progression, we firstly detected TUG1 expression in IH tissues and found that TUG1 was significantly upregulated in IH tissues compared with the adjacent normal subcutaneous tissues (p < 0.01 for proliferating-phase hemangioma tissues and p < 0.01 for involuting-phase hemangioma tissues)
The results showed that TUG1 was upregulated in IH tissues, especially in the proliferative-phase hemangioma tissues (Fig. 1B)
Summary
Previous studies indicated that lncRNA taurine upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) played essential roles in human cancers. Increasing evidence indicates that lncRNAs possess various regulatory functions in cancer progression, including proliferation, migration, and invasion [7]. TUG1 promotes proliferation, migration, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of papillary thyroid cancer cells by targeting miR-145 [10]. TUG1 is associated with the development of breast cancer [12], colorectal cancer [13], and gastric cancer [14]. These reports confirmed the crucial roles of TUG1 in human cancers.
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