Regulation of TGFß signalling by the long noncoding RNA TGFß2-AS1

Abstract: Long noncoding RNAs have been shown to regulate many signalling pathways and their expression has been linked to the development of many cancers. Here we assess the involvement of the long noncoding RNA TGFß2-AS1 in the regulation of the TGFß signalling pathway, specifically its involvement in the TGFß induced process of EMT. In this study, we found that TGFß treatment induced the expression of TGFß2-AS1, and furthermore, TGFß2-AS1 has an inhibitory effect on the expression of the TGFß target genes SERPINE1/PAI-1, CDH2/N-cadherin and Fibronectin. Moreover, our data indicates that TGFß2-AS1 expression has a pro-mitotic effect, that is regulated by PRC2-mediated repression of p15, in HaCaT cells. In conclusion, we show that several EMT markers are differentially regulated by TGFß2-AS1 in response to TGFß and that TGFß2-AS1 plays a role in regulating proliferation.