Background: Our preliminary bioinformatics analysis showed that lncRNA TINCR may absorb miR-214-5p by serving is sponge, while miR-214-5p targets ROCK1. This study aimed to investigate the interactions among these 3 factors in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods: Expression of TINCR, ROCK1 and miR-214-5p in HCC and non-tumor tissues was detected by performing qPCR. The correlations among TINCR, ROCK1 and miR-214-5p in HCC tissues were analyzed by performing linear regression. Overexpression experiments were performed to analyze gene interactions. Cell proliferation was analyzed by CCK-8 assay.Results: We found that TINCR and ROCK1 were upregulated, while miR-214-5p was downregulated in HCC. TINCR and ROCK1 were positively correlated, while TINCR and miR-214-5p were not significantly correlated. In HCC cells, TINCR overexpression is followed by ROCK1 overexpression, while miR-214-5p overexpression induced the downregulation of ROCK1. In addition, TINCR and miR-214-5p did not affect the expression of each other. TINCR and ROCK1 overexpression led to increased rate of cancer cell proliferation, while miR-214-5p played an opposite role and reduced the effects of TINCR overexpression. Therefore, TINCR sponges miR-214-5p to upregulate ROCK1 in HCC, thereby promoting cancer cell invasion and migration.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.