The Role of Long Intergenic Noncoding RNA p21 in Vascular Endothelial Cells.

Large intergenic long noncoding RNA p21 (lincRNA-p21) has recently shown to play an important role in biological functions. However, the biological role of lincRNA-p21 in vascular endothelial cells remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of lincRNA-p21 in vascular endothelial cells through gain- and loss-of-function studies and found that lincRNA-p21 promoted cell apoptosis and induced cell cycle progression. Furthermore, lincRNA-p21 acted as an endogenous sponge by directly binding to miR-130b and decreased miR-130b expression. In addition, miR-130b reversed the inhibitory effect of lincRNA-p21 on the growth of vascular endothelial cells. Taken together, our data highlight the pivotal role of lincRNA-p21 in the growth of vascular endothelial cells.