Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is the most common malignancy of the bile duct and patients with GBC have extremely poor prognoses. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are found to be dysregulated in a variety of cancers, including GBC. SPRY4-IT1 has been recently revealed as oncogenic regulator in many cancers. However, whether SPRY4-IT1 is involved in GBC progression remains largely unknown. To investigate the role of SPRY4-IT1 in GBC, we evaluated the expression SPRY4-IT1 in GBC tissues and cell lines, and investigated the effect of SPRY4-IT1 knockdown on cell proliferation, migration and invasion of GBC in vitro. Our result showed that SPRY4-IT1 was upregulated in GBC tissues. Further experiments revealed that SPRY4-IT1 knockdown significantly inhibited GBC cell proliferation. Furthermore, inhibitory effects of SPRY4-IT1 on cell migration and invasion were partly associated with EMT process. In conclusion, these data suggest that SPRY4-IT1 could be an oncogene for GBC, and may be served as a candidate target for new therapies in human GBC.
Keywords: EMT; GBC; SPRY4-IT1; lncRNA; metastasis.