MALAT1 promotes angiogenesis of breast cancer.

Metastasis‑associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is a long non‑coding RNA (lncRNA) that has an oncogenic role in some types of cancers, uncluding breast cancer (BC). To investigate the role of MALAT1 in human BC progression, we detected MALAT1 expression levels based on tissue samples from 20 BC cases and 20 healthy controls and found MALAT1 expression levels to be significantly high (P<0.05). Then, we knocked down endogenous MALAT1 in MCF‑7 cells using MALAT1 short hairpin RNA (shRNA). The results revealed that MALAT1 knockdown could significantly inhibit proliferation, migration, and tube formation in vitro. In addition, miR‑145 expression inversely changed in BC tissue cases. Furthermore, knockdown of endogenous MALAT1 significantly increased miR‑145 levels in MCF‑7 cells. This finding indicated an interaction between MALAT1 and miR‑145. In addition, knockdown of MALAT1 significantly reduced the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in MCF‑7 cells. This outcome revealed that MALAT1 promoted angiogenesis in BC, which may be related to the expression of miR‑145.