The Role of LncRNA ANRIL in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumorigenesis: Regulation of the p53 Signaling Pathway

The long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) antisense noncoding RNA in the INK4 locus (<i>ANRIL</i>) expression is upregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tissues, and decreased <i>ANRIL</i> expression inhibits cell proliferation, metastasis, and invasion and induces apoptosis in HCC cells. However, the molecular mechanism by which <i>ANRIL</i> is involved in HCC tumorigenesis is unclear. In this study, <i>ANRIL</i> was found to be a significantly upregulated lncRNA in HCC and was associated with the metastasis and poor prognosis of HCC. p53 plays an important role in the mechanism of carcinogenesis. Therefore, we hypothesized that <i>ANRIL</i> plays a biological role by regulating the p53 signaling pathway. To comprehensively evaluate the biological function of <i>ANRIL</i>, bioinformatics analysis, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blotting, wound healing, Transwell, cell colonization assay, cell counting kit-8, reactive oxygen species, JC-1, EdU, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP Nick end labeling were performed. The results showed that the knockdown of <i>ANRIL</i> inhibited HCC cell viability, colony forming ability, functions such as metastasis and invasion, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Meanwhile, the knockdown of <i>ANRIL</i> also resulted in the decreased expression of the p53 protein. All these effects are tightly intertwined with the regulation of the p53 signaling pathway. Thus, <i>ANRIL</i> may contribute to the development of new drugs for the treatment of human HCC.