PURPOSE: To investigate the role and mechanism of long non-coding (lnc) RNA 
LINC00339 in pancreatic cancer (PANC), and provided a potential target for its 
biological diagnosis and treatment.
METHODS: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to 
detect the expression of LINC00339 in PANC tissue specimens and cell lines. The 
experimental cell lines differentially expressing LINC00339 were constructed by 
using small interfering RNA and lentivirus transfection. Cell proliferation was 
examined by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation experiments and 
transwell experiments were used to assess cell invasion and migration abilities. 
The luciferase assay and RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) were employed to study 
the target gene for LINC00339, and western blot analysis was utilized to measure 
protein expression of the downstream gene.
RESULTS: The level of LINC00339 expression in PANC tissues or cells was 
significantly higher than that in their respective control groups. Interfering 
expression of LINC00339 could notably inhibit the proliferation, invasion and 
migration of SW1990 cells, while the over-expressing expression of LINC00339 
obviously increased the growth and metastasis abilities of PANC-1 cells. 
LINC00339 could act as a miR-497-5p sponge, adsorbing miR-497-5p, thereby 
inhibiting its action by increasing the expression of its target gene IGF1R. The 
expression of miR-497-5p and its target gene IGF1R could be significantly 
altered by altering the expression of LINC00339.
CONCLUSIONS: LINC00339 was markedly over-expressed in PANC tissues and cells and 
promoted cell proliferation, invasion, and migration via sponging miR-497-5p, 
thereby increasing IGF1R expression. Our study could provide a novel target for 
PANC diagnosis and biotherapy.