Objective To investigate the impacts and mechanism of LINC00638 on proliferation, migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cells.

Methods The expression of LINC00638 in ovarian cancer tissues was detected by qRT-PCR, the correlation between LINC00638 expression and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of ovarian cancer was analyzed. The ovarian cancer cell line with the largest difference in LINC00638 and miR-424-5p expression was selected, SKOV3 cells were intervened to inhibit expression of LINC00638 or simultaneously inhibit the expression of LINC00638 and miR-424-5p, and the proliferation, invasion and migration of SKOV3 cells were detected after intervention, the relationship between LINC00638 and miR-424-5p was detected by double luciferase reporter gene assay.

Results The expression level of LINC00638 in ovarian cancer was obviously higher than that in adjacent tissues (P ＜ 0.05), the expression of LINC00638 was correlated with FIGO stage, differentiation, lymph node metastasis and prognosis (P ＜ 0.05), but not with age, tumor diameter and pathological type (P ＞ 0.05). The results of double luciferase reporter gene experiment showed that LINC00638 could negatively regulate the expression of miR-424-5p; inhibition of LINC00638 expression was able to obviously inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of SKOV3 cells, and inhibition of miR-424-5p expression could reverse the inhibition of LINC00638 on proliferation, migration and invasion of SKOV3 cells (P ＜ 0.05 to P ＜ 0.01).

Conclusion LINC00638 is highly expressed in ovarian cancer tissues and cells, which is related to the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with ovarian cancer. Inhibition of LINC00638 expression can target up-regulation of miR-424-5p expression and inhibit the proliferation, migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cells.