Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 overexpression is associated with unfavorable prognosis in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy: A Chinese population-based study

To identify the association between the expression of lncRNA NEAT1 and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with HCC, and to explore the prognostic significance of lncRNA NEAT1 in predicting prognosis of HCC.

We retrospectively reviewed 86 patients with HCC (35 female, 51 male) managed in our institution between 2009 and 2014. The expression level of lncRNA NEAT1 was detected by real-time PCR. Prognostic factors were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models.

For the entire cohort of 86 patients, we showed that the expression level of NEAT1 was significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with non-tumorous tissues and NEAT1 was increased obviously in the HCC cell lines including SMMC-7721, Huh-7 and Hep3B (P < 0.001). MTT assay showed that si-NEAT1 remarkably inhibited the cell proliferation in three HCC cell lines. Moreover, over-expression of lncRNA NEAT1 was closely related to liver cirrhosis (P = 0.026), microvascular invasion (MVI) (P = 0.023), and TNM stage (P = 0.017). After adjusting for competing risk factors, we identified that expression level of lncRNA NEAT1 was an independently risk factor associated with the prognosis of patients with HCC (P = 0.031).

In this study, we found NEAT1 expressed significantly higher in HCC tissues compared with non-tumorous tissues. Overexpression of lncRNA NEAT1 was an independently risk factor associated with the prognosis of patients with HCC.