Abstract: Objective To investigate the expression of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (HNRNPC) in lung adenocarcinoma cell and the effect of knocking-down HNRNPC on the proliferation, invasion, migration, and apoptosis of lung adenocarcinoma cells line, as well as its possible mechanism. Methods The expression levels of mRNA and protein of HNRNPC in the normal lung epithelial cell line BEAS-2B were compared with those in the lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 detected by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and western blot (WB), respectively. Lentiviral tools were used to construct the low-expression stable transformation of HNRNPC. The effects of HNRNPC knockdown on the proliferation, clone formation, invasion, and migration of A549 cells were studied using CCK-8 method, plate cloning, Transwell assay and cell scratch assay. Flow cytometry and WB were employed to detect the effects of HNRNPC knockdown on cell cycle, apoptosis, and the expression of cyclin CDK1 in A549 cells. Results The expression levels of mRNA and protein of HNRNPC in lung adenocarcinoma cell lines were higher than those in normal lung epithelial cell lines. Knockdown of HNRNPC gene using lentiviral tools significantly inhibited the proliferation and clone formation ability of A549 cells, decreased the invasion and migration ability, increased cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and reduced the expression level of CDK1 protein. Conclusions HNRNPC is highly expressed in A549 cells and plays a role of an oncogene in lung adenocarcinoma. Knocking-down HNRNPC can inhibit the proliferation, invasion, and induce apoptosis of A549 cells. HNRNPC may serve as a new potential target for the diagnosis and treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.

Key words: heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C, lung adenocarcinoma, proliferation, invasion, migration, apoptosis