Long non-coding RNA lncTCF7 predicts poor prognosis and promotes tumor metastasis in osteosarcoma

The 5-year survival rate of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma remains poor. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms underlying metastasis of osteosarcoma need to be investigated. Long non-coding RNA lncTCF7 promotes tumor metastasis in liver and lung cancers; however, its role in osteosarcoma remains unclear. In this study, we found that lncTCF7 expression was significantly higher in osteosarcoma tissues than that in adjacent normal osteosarcoma tissues and upregulated lncTCF7 expression was significantly correlated with tumor metastasis, higher TNM grade and lower survival rate. Additionally, we observed that lncTCF7 silencing significantly inhibited the migration and invasion of osteosarcoma cells, but showed no effects on the proliferation and apoptosis of these cells. lncTCF7 silencing markedly increased the expression of E-cadherin and decreased the expressions of N-cadherin, vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), and MMP-9, which exerted a potentiating effect on EMT. The result was suggested that lncTCF7 silencing inhibited tumor metastasis in osteosarcoma by possibly inhibiting EMT process. In conclusion, these observations indicated the potential of lncTCF7 as a biomarker of poor prognosis and promising target for treating osteosarcoma.