Aberrant methylation‑mediated decrease of lncRNA HNF1A‑AS1 contributes to malignant progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma via EMT.

Aberrant methylation is one of the most frequent epigenetic alterations that regulate the expression levels of genes, including long non‑coding RNAs (lncRNAs), in tumors. However, to the best of our knowledge, the expression and function of hepatic nuclear factor 1α antisense RNA 1 (HNF1A‑AS1) and its methylation condition have not yet been reported in the development and progression of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). In the present study, the expression and methylation of HNF1A‑AS1 were first examined by reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR, bisulfite genomic sequencing and methylation‑specific polymerase chain reaction in samples from patients with LSCC, which were based on the in silico analysis using The Cancer Genome Atlas data, and were then further verified in LSCC cell lines with and without 5‑Aza‑2'‑deoxycytidine (5‑Aza‑dC) treatment.

EZH2 promotes invasion and metastasis of laryngeal squamous cells carcinoma via epithelial-mesenchymal transition through H3K27me3.

Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2(EZH2), which can change chromatin structure by tri-methylation of the 27th lysine of H3 in nucleosome histone (H3K27me3), is involved in different types of cancers. However, the role and mechanism underlying aberrant EZH2 expression in laryngeal squamous cells carcinoma (LSCC) remain unclear. In the present study, we found that down-regulation of EZH2 and H3K27me3 in LSCC cells (Hep-2 and SCC10A) resulted in an mesenchymal-epithelial transition(MET) like cell morphology and lower invasion in vitro, weakened tumor growth, intrahepatic and pulmonary metastasis in vivo.