The knockdown of MALAT1 inhibits the proliferation, invasion and migration of hemangioma endothelial cells by regulating MiR-206 / VEGFA axis.

AIM: LncRNA MALAT1 is involved in regulation of angiogenesis, however, its expression and mechanism in infantile hemangioma (IH) are less reported. The study aimed to investigate MALAT1 in IH and to reveal the potential mechanism of MALAT1 acting on IH.

METHODS

Isolated form IH tissue, human CD31+ hemangioma endothelial cells (HemECs) were cultured and sorted by magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS). Quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR was performed to detect the expressions of MALAT1, miR-206 and VEGFA. The correlations among MALAT1, miR-206 and VEGFA were confirmed by bioinformatics analysis and dual-luciferase reporter assay. The effects of MALAT1, miR-206 and VEGFA on cell proliferation were detected by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and cell colony formation assay. Flow cytometry, wound scratch, Transwell and Tube formation assay were performed to determine cell apoptosis, migration, invasion and vasoformation, respectively. Apoptosis-related proteins were determined by Western blot.

RESULTS

The results showed that MALAT1 and VEGFA were high-expressed and miR-206 was low-expressed in IH tissues. SiMALAT1 negatively affected the cell proliferation, migration, invasion and vasoformation of HemECs and promoted apoptosis of HemECs. Moreover, Bcl-2 expression was significantly inhibited and the expressions of Bax and c cleaved-3 were greatly promoted. MALAT1 directly targeted and inhibited the expression of miR-206, and VEGFA was predicted to be the target gene for miR-206. SiMALAT1 suppressed the cell proliferation, migration, invasion and vasoformation of HemECs through modulating miR-206/VEGFA axis.

CONCLUSION

Knock-down of MALAT1 inhibits the growth of HemECs through regulating miR-206/VEGFA axis, indicating that MALAT1 is a potential therapeutic mechanism for the treatment of IH.