No abstract

Long noncoding RNAs cancer susceptibility candidate 2 (CASC2) have been demonstrated as playing crucial regulatory roles in a few of cancers. However, the biological function of lncRNA CASC2 in bladder cancer are still unclear. In this study, we found that lncRNA CASC2 was significantly down-regulated in bladder cancer tissues and cell lines by quantitative real time-PCR and associated with advanced TNM stage (III/IV). Moreover, overexpression of lncRNA CASC2 remarkably reduced the cell growth, migration and invasion, as well as promoted early apoptosis of bladder cancer cell in vitro. Furthermore, we illustrated that lncRNA CASC2 inhibited Wnt/β-catenin signal pathway activity by decrasing the β-catenin expression and reversing the downstream target gene expression of Wnt signaling pathway. Taken together, lncRNA CASC2 plays an pivotal role in bladder tumorigenesis and progression and may act as a potential biomarker for the treatment of bladder cancer.

No abstract

Bmal1 is a transcription factor that plays a central role in the regulation of circadian rhythms. Recent study reported that Bmal1-/- mice displayed many known features of premature ageing, such as reduction of bone mass. Our previous study has found that both the proliferation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) and Bmal1 expression decreased with advancing age. It seemed that a positive correlation existed between Bmal1 protein level and the proliferative activity of BMSCs. β-catenin, the core factor of the canonical Wnt pathway, also showed reduced expression in aged mice. In order to further confirm this, we constructed a lentiviral vector to over-express Bmal1 in NIH-3T3 cells; successful transfection was verified. The cell proliferation rate of infected cells was higher than the non-transfected NIH-3T3 cells, suggesting that circadian clock gene Bmal1 can promote proliferation. β-catenin showed an increased expression in NIH-3T3 cells after Bmal1 over-expression, indicating that activation of the canonical Wnt pathway might be the mechanism underlying the effect of circadian clock gene Bmal on promoting cell proliferation.