Linc-9432 is a novel pterygium lincRNA which regulates differentiation of fibroblasts.

Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are not fully characterized in disease, although many are involved in controlling differentiation. We discovered and sequenced a novel 4.4 kb human lincRNA called linc-9432 in pterygium, an ocular disease characterized by a wedge lesion. This transcript inhibited differentiation-induced cell death, promoted expression of stem cell markers, and decreased expression of epithelial and mesenchymal differentiation markers. This lincRNA regulated 30 differentiation-related genes in transcriptome analysis and 17/30 gene products were known to be directly associated in a network. When the lincRNA was silenced with pooled siRNA, the levels of these transcripts decreased in accordance with their predicted binding affinity for the lincRNA. TBC1D8B had the strongest affinity, interacting in-vitro at positions 269-292 within TBC1D8B.