Inhibition of E-cadherin expression by lnc-RNA H19 to facilitate bladder cancer metastasis

Bladder cancer is derived from bladder mucosa and is the most common malignant tumor in urinary system. Long non-coding RNA (lnc-RNA) has high tissue specificity and can participate in cell proliferation and differentiation at various levels, and plays critical roles in occurrence of malignant tumors. This study aims to investigate the suppression of E-cadherin expression by lnc-RNA H19 to enhance bladder cancer metastasis. qRT-PCR was applied to analyze differential expression of lnc-RNA HI9 in different bladder cancer tissues and tumor adjacent tissues. Patients clinical data were collected to analyze the correlation between H19 expression level and patient's clinical stage, tumor metastasis. RNA interference was employed to examine the effect of H19 on E-cadherin expression. The regulation of cancer metastasis was investigated on an animal model. H19 expression level was significantly higher in bladder cancer tissue compared to adjacent tissues (p < 0.05), and is correlated with advanced clinical stage (p < 0.05). In those metastatic patients, H19 expression level is significantly higher than those without metastasis (p < 0.05). RNA interference is applied to knockdown H19 expression in bladder cancer cell, and found potentiated E-cadherin expression (p < 0.05), accompanied with weakened metastatic potency (p < 0.05). H19 expression is up-regulated in bladder cancer, and is probably related with cancer clinical stage and metastasis. Cell transfection reveals up-regulation of E-cadherin expression in bladder cancer cells when H19 expression is suppressed, accompanied with weakened metastasis potency.