Long Noncoding RNA uc.345 promotes tumorigenesis of pancreatic cancer by upregulation of hnRNPL expression

Increasing evidence points to an important functional or regulatory role of long noncoding RNA in cellular processes as well as some cancer diseases result from the aberrant lncRNA expression. LncRNA could participate in the cancer progross and develop a significant role through the interaction with proteins. In the present study, we report a lncRNA termed uc.345 that is up-regulated in tumor tissues, compared to the corresponding noncancerous tissues. We found that a higher uc.345 expression lever was significantly more frequent in tissues with increased depth of invasion and advanced TNM tumor node metastasis T stage. Moreover, uc.345 serves as an independent risk factor for pancreatic cancer patients’ overall survival (OS). Through soft agar assay and tumor xenograft model, our results indicate that uc.345 could stimulate tumor growth in vitro and in vivo. We also found the uc.345 could upregulate the hnRNPL protein level, furthermore, we demonstrate that the inhibition of (hnRNPL) by its association with uc.345 contributes to depress tumorgenesis in vitro. Collectively, these results demonstrate that uc.345 functions as an oncogenic lncRNA that promotes tumor progression and serves as a poor predictor for pancreatic cancer patients' overall survival. We obtained 103 pairs of primary PC and adjacent non-tumor tissues from patients undergoing resection surgery at the Department of General Surgery, Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai from 2011 to 2013. For all cases, two pathologists were in agreement with regard to pathological features and confirmed the PC diagnoses. No local or systemic treatment was conducted in these patients before surgery.