Long non-coding RNA MINCR regulates the growth and metastasis of human osteosarcoma cells via Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

There is concrete evidence that lncRNA-MINCR is involved in tumorigenesis of a number of human cancers through modulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, the characterization of regulatory role of lncRNA-MINCR has not been worked out in osteosarcoma yet. The present study was undertaken to explore the role of lncRNA-MINCR in human osteosarcoma. The osteosarcoma tissues and cell lines were found to exhibit significant (P<0.05) over-expression of lncRNA-MINCR. Silencing of lncRNA-MINCR in osteosarcoma cells suppressed their cell viability through the induction of apoptosis. The Saos-2 osteosarcoma cells exhibited significant (P<0.05) decline in migration and invasion rate together with inhibition of EMT under transcriptional knockdown of lncRNA-MINCR. Western blot analysis revealed that lncRNA-MINCR operated through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to control the growth and metastasis of osteosarcoma cells. In vivo mice tumorigenesis was significantly (P<0.05) restricted under lncRNA-MINCR repression. The study clearly indicated that lncRNA-MINCR exhibits crucial growth regulatory role in osteosarcoma together with its ability to control the metastasis of cancer cells through Wnt/β-catenin signal.