Abstract: Objective To study the mechanism of long non-coding RNA(lncRNA)TINCR to regulate the invasion and migration of Huh7 cells through miR-7. Methods The expression of TINCR was detected by real time PCR. TINCR shRNA was transfected and proliferation of Huh7 cells was determined by CCK-8; Invasion and migration were measured by Transwell chamber; The expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was detected by Western blot. Bioinformatics software predicted target relationship between TINCR and miR-7 and confirmed by luciferase report system. In Huh7 cells, miR-7 inhibitor and TINCR shRNA were co-transfected, the cell proliferation, migration and invasion were measured by the above methods. Results The expression level of TINCR in hepatoma cells was significantly higher than that in normal hepatocytes(P＜0.05). After transfection of TINCR shRNA, the level of TINCR decreased in Huh7 cells(P＜0.05), cell proliferation, migration and invasion all significantly decreased(P＜0.05), MMP-2 and MMP-9 protein levels were also decreased(P＜0.05). TINCR targeted negative regulation of miR-7 expression. miR-7 inhibitor can improve the proliferation, migration, invasion and the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 protein of hepatoma cells after down regulating TINCR(P＜0.05). Conclusions Down regulation of TINCR may inhibit the invasion and migration of Huh7 cells through targeting at miR-7 expression.

Key words: hepatocellular carcinoma, miR-7, migration, tissue differentiation inducing non-protein coding RNA