LncRNA SNHG12 promotes cell growth and inhibits cell apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells

Abstract Several long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) might be correlated with the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) and serve as adiagnostic and prognostic biomarker. However, the exact expression pattern of small nucleolar RNA host gene 12 (SNHG12)incolorectal cancer and its clinical significance remains unclear. The level of SNHG12 was detected by qRT-PCR in CRC tissuesand CRC cells. MTTassay and colony formation assay were performed to examine the cell proliferation of CRC cells transfectedwith pcDNA-SNHG12 or si-SNHG12. Flow cytometry technology was used to detect cell cycle and cell apoptosis of CRC cellstransfected with pcDNA-SNHG12 or si-SNHG12. The protein level of cell cycle progression-related molecules, including cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK4, CDK6), cyclin D1 (CCND1) and cell apoptosis-related molecule caspase 3 was detected by westernblot. The effect of SNHG12 knockdown was examined in vivo. Increased levels of SNHG12 were observed in CRC tissues andin CRC cells. SNHG12 promoted the cell proliferation of CRC cells. In addition, SNHG12 overexpression boosted the cell cycleprogression of SW480 cells transfected with pcDNA-SNHG12 and SNHG12 knockdown inhibited the cell cycle progression ofHT29 cells transfected with si-SNHG12. SNHG12 also inhibited the cell apoptosis of CRC cells. We also found that SNHG12increased the expression of cell cycle-related proteins and suppressed the expression of caspase 3. Our results suggest thatSNHG12 promoted cell growth and inhibited cell apoptosis in CRC cells, indicating that SNHG12 might be a useful biomarker forcolorectal cancer.Key words: SNHG12; Cell growth; biomarker; Cell apoptosis; Colorectal cancer