Circular RNAs (circRNAs) belong to non-coding RNAs and are known as key regulators in gene regulation. CircRNAs involve in the various biological processes of cancer. However, the functions of circRNAs in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are still not clear. In this study, the circRNA expression profile was performed in the RCC tissues by microarray. There were 35 significantly expressed circRNAs with more than 5 folds from microarray analysis. Hsa_circ_0039569 (circ_0039569) was verified to be up-regulated in RCC and cells compared with the controls by real time RT-PCR. The assays of cellular functions showed that circ_0039569 down-regulation suppressed the proliferation and metastasis of RCC cells. The molecular mechanism of circ_0039569 in RCC cells showed that circ_0039569 promoted RCC progression by up-regulating CCL22 expression via down-regulating miR-34a-5p. Taken together, the study indicated that circ_0039569 played an important role in RCC cell survival and metastasis, which suggested that an oncogenic role of circ_0039569 in RCC progression.
Keywords: CCL22; Renal cell carcinoma; cell proliferation; hsa_circ_0039569; metastasis; miR-34a-5p.