Effects of DLEU1 knockdown on gene expression profiles in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells

We identified DLEU1 as a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) frequently overexpressed in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Knockdown of DLEU1 suppressed proliferation, migration and invasion and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in OSCC cells. To further clarify the molecular function of DLEU1, we carried out gene expression microarray analysis in OSCC cell lines with DLEU1 knockdown. We found that genes associated with “matrix metalloproteinases”, “apoptosis”, “cell cycle” and “MAPK signaling” were enriched among the affected genes. These results suggest that DLEU1 may play a role in the development of OSCC. OSCC cell lines (HSC-3, KON and Ca9-22) were transfected with a control siRNA (Sigma-Aldrich) or a siRNA targeting DLEU1 (Sigma-Aldrich) using Lipofectamine RNAiMAX (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and incubated for 72 h.