Role of long noncoding RNA SNHG3 in regulating proliferation, migration and invasion of cervical cancer SiHa cells

Abstract

To investigate the regulatory role of the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) small nucleolar host gene 3 (SNHG3) in proliferation, migration and invasion of human cervical cancer cell line SiHa. Array data were retrieved from GEO database to analyze the expression levels of SNHG3 in cervical cancer and adjacent normal tissues. SiHa cells were transfected with a small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting SNHG3, and the changes in the transcriptional levels of lncRNA SNHG3 and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers N-cadherin, Snail, vimentin and E-cadherin were detected using real-time quantitative PCR; the protein expressions of N-cadherin, Snail, vimentin and E-cadherin were determined using Western blotting. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay was utilized to assess the proliferation capacity of the transfected cells. Wound healing assay and Transwell assay were performed to evaluate the transversal and longitudinal migration and invasion abilities of the cells. SNHG3 was over-expressed in cervical cancer tissues and SiHa cells. In SiHa cells, knocking down SNHG3 significantly inhibited the proliferation (P < 0.001), migration (P < 0.01) and invasion abilities (P < 0.001) of the cells, down-regulated the expression levels of N-cadherin, Snail and vimentin (P < 0.001) and up-regulated the expression of E-cadherin (P < 0.001). SNHG3 may promote the proliferation, migration and invasion of SiHa cells by activating the EMT signaling pathway.