Preliminary investigation of the function of hsa_circ_0006215 in pancreatic cancer

: The incidence of pancreatic cancer is increasing annually in Asia as a whole. Pancreatic cancer ranks sixth in terms of incidence of all malignant tumors. Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of non-coding RNA which forms a covalently closed continuous loop. CircRNA is extensively expressed in the cytoplasm, and is markedly conservative and stable. MicroRNA (miR)-378a-3p and human (hsa)_circ_0006215 were detected using the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) in tissue and cells. Western blot analysis detected the SERPINA4 and hsa_circ_0006215 expression in tissue. A Cell Counting Kit-8 assay was used to determine cell stability. Flow cytometry was used to determine the cell apoptotic rate. Transwell assays were used to determine cell migration. hsa_circ_0006215 was identified as a significantly upregulated circRNA. RT-qPCR results verified that, in 30 samples of pancreatic cancer tissue and paracancerous tissue, hsa_circ_0006215 expression was increased in pancreatic cancer tissue, miR-378a-3p expression was decreased in pancreatic cancer tissue, and SERPINA4 expression was increased in pancreatic cancer tissue (P<0.05). Using bioinformatics database and bioinformatics analysis, the interaction network of hsa_circ_0006215 indicated that this circRNA was most likely to regulate the expression of miR-378a-3p. Further interaction analysis revealed that the SERPINA4 gene was a regulatory target gene most likely to have an influence. The present study identified the effects of hsa_circ_0006215, miR-378a-3p and SERPINA4 signaling pathways in pancreatic cancer cells.