Role of Long Noncoding RNA HOTAIR in the Growth and Apoptosis of Osteosarcoma Cell MG-63

This study investigated the function of HOTAIR in the growth and apoptosis of OS MG-63 cell line in vitro and further clarified its mechanism. The expression levels of HOTAIR in OSMG-63 cell line and normal osteoblast hFOB1.19 cell line were determined by RT-PCR, respectively. The growth and apoptosis of MG-63 cells in vitro were investigated by MTT assay and flow cytometry assay after HOTAIR was knocked down with retroviral vector construction. And the expression levels of cell growth and apoptosis related factors TGF-beta, p53, Bcl-2, and TNF-alpha were determined to clarify the mechanism. We found that HOTAIR was highly expressed in osteosarcoma MG-63 cell line compared with normal osteoblast hFOB1.19 cell line. The proliferation rate was lower and the apoptosis rate was higher significantly in shHOTAIR MG-63 cells than those in EV MG-63 cells. TGF-beta and Bcl-2 were downregulated significantly when HOTAIR was knocked down. p53 and TNF-alpha were upregulated significantly when HOTAIR was knocked down. These results indicated that HOTAIR functioned as a carcinogenic lncRNA, which could promote the proliferation and inhibit the apoptosis of MG-63 cells in vitro. HOTAIR could be a potential target for the treatment of osteosarcoma.