LncRNA TUG1 affects cell viability by regulating glycolysis in osteosarcoma cells

Osteosarcoma is an aggressive malignant neoplasm in teenagers and young adults. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) taurine-upregulated gene 1 (TUG1) is considered as an oncogene in osteosarcoma. However, the mechanism of TUG1 in regulating osteosarcoma has not been fully understood. We aimed to investigate whether the metabolic alteration is involved in the effect of TUG1 on osteosarcoma cells. Herein, we found that TUG1 was overexpressed in osteosarcoma cells compared with the normal osteoblastic cell line. Knockdown of TUG1 inhibited glucose consumption, lactate production and cell viability of osteosarcoma cells. Overexpression of TUG1 induced cell viability, whereas the induction was attenuated by 2-DG. The aberrant expression of TUG1 markedly affected the expression of hexokinase-2 (HK2). Knockdown of HK2 weakened the effect of TUG1 overexpression on glycolysis in osteosarcoma cells. We concluded that glycolysis was involved in the effect of TUG1 on cell viability of osteosarcoma cells. HK2 might be an important molecule by which TUG1 affected the glycolysis.