Knockdown of inhibits cell proliferation and invasion, but promotes cell apoptosis in hemangioma, via ‑induced mediation of the Notch signaling pathway.

As a member of the long non‑coding (lnc)RNA family, lncRNA maternally expressed 8, small nucleolar RNA host gene (), has been reported to serve an oncogenic role in several types of malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma, non‑small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of the knockdown of on human hemangioma endothelial cell (HemEC) proliferation, apoptosis and invasion, in addition to determining the underlying molecular mechanism. The knockdown of was achieved by transfecting small interfering (si)RNA into HemECs, while the combined knockdown of knockdown and microRNA (miR)‑203 was established by co‑transfecting siRNA and a miR‑203 inhibitor into HemECs. The cell proliferation, apoptosis and invasion and the expression levels of miR‑34a, , and Notch signaling pathway‑related factors were detected via CCK‑8 Kit, flow cytometry, Transwell, reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR and western blot assay, respectively. The knockdown of significantly inhibited proliferation (P<0.05) and invasion (P<0.05), but promoted apoptosis (P<0.01) in HemECs. Furthermore, knockdown upregulated (P<0.01) expression, but did not alter or expression (both P>0.05). Subsequent experiments revealed that silencing exerted no significant effect on the expression levels of (P>0.05) in HemECs. In addition, silencing increased cell proliferation (P<0.05) and invasion (P<0.01), but suppressed apoptosis (P<0.05). silencing also reversed the effect of knockdown on the proliferation (P<0.05), apoptosis (P<0.001) and invasion (P<0.01) of HemECs. Moreover, knockdown downregulated jagged canonical notch ligand 1 (JAG1; P<0.05) and Notch1 (P<0.05) expression levels, while silencing upregulated JAG1 (P<0.01) and Notch1 (P<0.01) expression levels and reversed the effects of knockdown on JAG1 (P<0.01) and Notch1 (P<0.01) expression in HemECs. In conclusion, the findings of the present study suggested that knockdown may inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, but promote cell apoptosis in hemangioma via ‑induced mediation of the Notch signaling pathway.