Long non-coding RNA tumor metastasis in osteosarcoma.

The 5-year survival rate of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma remains poor. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms underlying metastasis of osteosarcoma need to be investigated. Long non-coding RNA promotes tumor metastasis in liver and lung cancers; however, its role in osteosarcoma remains unclear. In this study, we found that expression was significantly higher in osteosarcoma tissues than that in adjacent normal osteosarcoma tissues and upregulated expression was significantly correlated with tumor metastasis, higher TNM grade and lower survival rate. Additionally, we observed that silencing significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells, but showed no effects on the proliferation and apoptosis of these cells. silencing markedly increased the expression of E-cadherin and decreased the expressions of N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), and MMP-9, which exerted a potentiating effect on EMT. The result was suggested that silencing inhibited tumor metastasis in osteosarcoma by possibly inhibiting EMT process. In conclusion, these observations indicated the potential of as a biomarker of poor prognosis and promising target for treating osteosarcoma.