Expression And Function Of AFAP1-AS1 In Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective:Recently,increasing evidence has demonstrated that long noncoding RNAs(IncRNAs)are critical regulators in tumorigenesis and progression.LncRNA AFAP1-AS1 has been reported to promote esophageal adenocarcinoma(EAC)cell growth,migration and invasion,and inhibit cell apoptosis.However its expression and function in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC)have not been reported.This study intends to analyze the expression of AFAP1-AS1 in ESCC tissues and cell lines,and investigate its biological function in ESCC progression,which will provide new ideas in clinical diagnosis and treatment of ESCC.Methods:(1)Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR)was performed to identify the expression of AFAP1-AS1 in 70 paired ESCC tissues and adjacent normal tissues.Correlation between AFAP1-AS1 expression and patients'clinicopathological characteristics was analyzed.(2)The expression of AFAP1-AS1 in ESCC cell lines was measured by qRT-PCR.Then we used specific designed small Interfering RNAs(siRNAs)to knockdown the expression of AFAP1-AS1 in ECA-109 and TE-1 cells.Colony formation assay and MTT assay were used to analyze the effect of AFAP1-AS1 knockdown on ESCC cell proliferation.Cell apoptosis was detected by flow cytometric analysis.Results:(1)AFAP1-AS1 was significantly upregulated in ESCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues.The high expression of AFAP1-AS1 was associated with patients' larger tumor size(P=0.040)and TNM stage(P=0.004).(2)AFAP1-AS1 was upregulated in ESCC ECA-109(P<0.05)and TE-1 cells(P<0.01).Knockdown of AFAP1-AS1 could notably inhibit cell proliferation,and induce cell apoptosis in vitro.Conclusions:AFAP1-AS1 could promote ESCC cell proliferation,and induce cell apoptosis in vitro,thereby promoting ESCC development and progression,which would be a promising target in its diagnosis and therapy.