LINC-PINT regulated the migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition of HK-2 cells treated with high glucose by targeting miR-1297

Objective To explore the effect of long intergenic non-protein coding RNA-p53 induced transcript (LINC-PINT) on the migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of human renal tubular epithelial HK-2 cells treated with high glucose (HG) and elucidate its molecular mechanism. Methods HK-2 cells were treated with 5.5 and 30 mmol/L glucose and recorded as NG and HG groups. HK-2 cells in HG group were divided into the groups of HG+si-NC,HG+si-LINC-PINT, HG+miR-NC,HG+miR-1297,HG+si-LINC-PINT+anti-miR-NC and HG+si-LINC-PINT+antimiR-1297. Reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used for detecting the expression levels of LINC-PINT and miR-1297. Transwell and Western blot for detecting the migration of HK-2 cells and the expression of related proteins. Dual luciferase reporter assay for examining the targeting relationship between LINC-PINT and miR-1297. Results Compared with NG group,the expression levels of LINC-PINT (1.00±0.05) vs (2.87±0.19) and miR-1297 (1.02±0.07) vs (0.43±0.04) significantly spiked and dropped obviously in HG group;number of migrated cells (89.37±4.56) vs (212.35±13.28) and expression levels of MMP-2 (0.31±0.02) vs (0.79±0.07),vimentin (0.22±0.01) vs (0.58±0.03),α-SMA (0.19±0.02) vs (0.53±0.05) and FN (0.12±0.01) vs (0.34±0.04) rose obviously while expression level of E-cadherin declined markedly (0.69±0.07) vs (0.27±0.02),P<0.05. Suppression of LINC-PINT expression or overexpression of miR-1297 significantly lowered the number of migrated cells (197.28±10.25) vs (137.53±7.59), (216.58±13.87) vs (145.29±6.82) and the expression levels of MMP-2 (0.83±0.05) vs (0.47±0.04), (0.78±0.05) vs (0.42±0.04),vimentin (0.62±0.05) vs (0.36±0.02), (0.56±0.04) vs (0.32±0.03),α-SMA (0.51±0.03) vs (0.28±0.02), (0.56±0.03) vs (0.30±0.02) and Fn (0.37±0.03) vs (0.23±0.03), (0.36±0.03) vs (0.25±0.02) and significantly boosted the expression level of E-cadherin (0.24±0.02) vs (0.58±0.03), (0.23±0.02) vs (0.55±0.04) (P<0.05). LINC-PINT targeted the expression of miR-1297 (P<0.05). A down-regulation of miR-1297 reversed the effect of suppressing the expression of LINC-PINT on the migration and EMT of HK-2 cells treated with HG (P<0.05). Conclusion LINC-PINT regulates the migration and EMT of HK-2 cells treated with HG through targeting miR-1297.