Down-regulation of Long Non-coding RNA TUG1 Inhibits Osteosarcoma Cell Proliferation and Promotes Apoptosis

Objective: To investigate the expression level of TUG1 and one of its transcript variants (n377360) inosteosarcoma cells and assess the role of TUG1 in proliferation and apoptosis in the U2OS cell line.
Methods:TUG1 and n377360 expression levels in patients with osteosarcomas and the U2OS human osteosarcoma cellline were evaluated using real-time quantitative PCR. U2OS cells were transected with TUG1 and n377360siRNA or non-targeting siRNA. MTS was performed to assess the cell proliferation and flow cytometry wasapplied to analyze apoptosis.
Results: We found significantly higher TUG1 and n377360 expression levels inosteosarcoma tissues compared with matched non-tumorous tissues. In line with this, suppression of TUG1and n377360 expression by siRNA significantly impaired the cell proliferation potential of osteosarcoma cells.Furthermore, inhibition of TUG1 expression significantly promoted osteosarcoma cell apoptosis.
Conclusions:The overexpression of TUG1 and n377360 in osteosarcoma specimens and the functional role of TUG1 andn377360 regarding cell proliferation and apoptosis in an osteosarcoma cell line provided evidence that the useof TUG1 or n377360 may be a viable but an as yet unexplored therapeutic strategy in tumors that over expressthese factors.