Murine Falcor/LL35 lncRNA Contributes to Glucose and Lipid Metabolism In Vitro and In Vivo

Glucose and lipid metabolism are crucial functional systems in eukaryotes. A large number of experimental studies both in animal models and humans have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in glucose and lipid metabolism. Previously, human lncRNA DEANR1/linc00261 was described as a tumor suppressor that regulates a variety of biological processes such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, glucose metabolism and tumorigenesis. Here we report that murine lncRNA Falcor/LL35, a proposed functional analog of human DEANR1/linc00261, is predominantly expressed in murine normal hepatocytes and downregulated in HCC and after partial hepatectomy. The application of high-throughput approaches such as RNA-seq, LC-MS proteomics, lipidomics and metabolomics analysis allowed changes to be found in the transcriptome, proteome, lipidome and metabolome of hepatocytes after LL35 depletion. We revealed that LL35 is involved in the regulation of glycolysis and lipid biosynthesis in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, LL35 affects Notch and NF-κB signaling pathways in normal hepatocytes. All observed changes result in the decrease in the proliferation and migration of hepatocytes. We demonstrated similar phenotype changes between murine LL35 and human linc00261 depletion in vitro and in vivo that opens the opportunity to translate results for LL35 from a liver murine model to possible functions of human lncRNA linc00261.