LncRNA-ZNF281 Interacts with miR-539 to Promote Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Invasion and Migration.

LncRNA-ZNF281 suppresses glioma, whereas its role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the interaction between ZNF281 and miR-539 in HCC. This study included 66 HCC patients (40 men and 26 women; 36-68 years, 53.1 ± 6.2 years) who were selected from the 133 HCC cases admitted to The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University from February 2011 to June 2014. Levels of ZNF281 and miR-539 expression in two types of tissues (HCC and nontumor) were measured by performing quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Dual-luciferase assay was performed to analyze the interactions between miR-539 and ZNF281 in both SNU-475 and PLHC-1 cells. The effects of ZNF281 and miR-539 overexpression on the invasion and migration of HCC cells were analyzed by performing transwell assays. The authors showed that ZNF281 was upregulated and miR-539 was downregulated in HCC tissues and were negatively correlated. High levels of ZNF281 and low levels of miR-539 predicted the poor survival of HCC patients. Overexpression analysis showed that ZNF281 and miR-539 overexpression led to the downregulation of each other. Transwell assays showed that ZNF281 overexpression led to enhanced and miR-539 overexpression led to suppressed HCC cell invasion and migration. In addition, miR-539 overexpression attenuated the effects of ZNF281 overexpression. Therefore, ZNF281 may interact with miR-539 to promote HCC cell invasion and migration.