Abstract:

Objective  To detect the expression of long chain non-coding RNA MEG3 in cervical cancer cells， and to detect the effect of MEG3 on the proliferation and migration of HeLa cells and its possible molecular mechanism. Methods The expression of MEG3 in normal cervical epithelial cells HcerEpic and cervical cancer cell lines C-33A， C4-1， Caski， SiHa and HeLa was detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR （QPCR）. MEG3 overexpression plasmid （MEG3 group）， negative control plasmid （NC group） and MEG3+Rac1 overexpression plasmid （MEG3+Rac1 group） were transfected into HeLa cells respectively. MTT assay was used to detect cell proliferation and Transwell assay was used to detect cell migration. The expression of PCNA， E-cadenin， N-cadenin， Vimentin and Rac1 was detected by Western blotting assay. Results The expression levels of MEG3 in C-33A， C4-1， Caski， SiHa and HeLa cells were 0.37±0.044， 0.65±0.075， 0.41±0.071， 0.71±0.053 and 0.42±0.081， which were lower than those in HcerEpic cells （P＜0.05）. MTT assay showed that the proliferation activity of HeLa cells in MEG3 group was significantly lower than that in NC group. The number of migrating cells in MEG3 group was 385±14， which was significantly lower than that in NC group （594±16），and the difference was statistically significant （P＜0.05）. Compared with NC group， the expressions of PCNA， N-cadenin and Vimentin were down-regulated and E-cadenin was up-regulated in MEG3 group. Compared with MEG3 group， MEG3+Rac1 group significantly increased the expression of Rac1 protein， the proliferation activity and the number of migrating cells. Conclusion LncRNA MEG3 inhibits the proliferation and migration of cervical cancer cells by targeting Rac1 signaling pathway.

Key words:

Cervical cancer')">"> Cervical cancer, Maternally expressed gene 3（MEG3）, Rac1, Proliferation, Migration