lncRNA NEAT1 is closely related with progression of breast cancer via promoting proliferation and EMT.

OBJECTIVE Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most common cancers in females. Abnormal proliferation and metastasis are key reasons that cause mortality in BC patients. More and more evidence showed that lncRNA played an important role in the BC development, but the mechanism was not well established. PATIENTS AND METHODS The expression of lncRNA NEAT1 was detected in 40 BC patients by qRT-PCR technology. MTT and Wound Healing assays were applied to detect the effect of lncRNA NEAT1 in proliferation and metastasis in BC. Western blot was used to detect possible protein, which was regulated by lncRNA NEAT1. RESULTS lncRNA NEAT1 was highly expressed in BC tissue, and the expression was also closely related to the tumor size and lymph node metastasis. Survival study also showed that the expression of lncRNA NEAT1 was closely related with prognosis of BC patients. MTT and Wound Healing assays showed that suppression of lncRNA NEAT1 could lead to decreased proliferation and metastasis in BC cell lines. Western blot also showed that β-catenin and N-cad were decreased while E-cad was increased after lncRNA NEAT1 being suppressed. CONCLUSIONS lncRNA NEAT1 may act as an oncogene in BC, which can promote proliferation and metastasis of BC.