High expression of long non-coding RNA lncRNA-ATB is correlated with metastases and promotes cell migration and invasion in renal cell carcinoma

To investigate the expression pattern of a novel long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta, long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta, in renal cell carcinoma tissues among the patients with various clinicopathologic features and to detect the possible role of dysregulated long non-coding RNA-ATB in renal cell carcinoma. The expression of long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta in the renal cell carcinoma tissues and renal cancer cell lines was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The association with clinicopathologic features was analyzed. The effects of long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta on the renal cell carcinoma cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration, invasion and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition were investigated by the loss-of-function approach. The expression of long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta was higher in the renal cell carcinoma tissues and renal cancer cells than in the adjacent non-tumor tissues and normal human proximal tubule epithelial cells HK-2. In addition, the long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta expression was significantly higher in the renal cell carcinoma patients with metastasis. The elevated expression of long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta was associated with tumor stages, histological grade, vascular invasion, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis. Notably, we found that long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta knockdown could (i) inhibit cell proliferation; (ii) trigger apoptosis; (iii) reduce epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition program; (iv) suppress cell migration and invasion. Our data have shown that long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta actively functions as a regulator of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition during renal cell carcinoma metastasis, which suggests that long non-coding ribonucleic acid activated by transforming growth factor beta may be a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for renal cell carcinoma.