Objective To explore the regulation of remifentanil on the expression of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 5 (DGCR5) and its effect on growth and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells.

Methods Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK-8) method was used to detect the proliferation of ovarian cancer cells SKOV3 and OVCAR3 in the 0, 0.5, 5.0, 50.0 and 500.0 ng/mL remifentanil group, si-NC group, si-lncRNA DGCR5 group, si-NC+500 ng/mL remifentanil group, and si-lncRNA DGCR5+500 ng/mL remifentanil group; the flow cytometry, Transwell method, Western blot and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) were sequentially used to determine cell apoptosis, cell migration, cell invasion, CyclinD1, activated aspartic acid specific cysteine protease-3 (Cleaved-caspase-3), matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2), matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) expressions and lncRNA DGCR5 expression in SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells.

Results Compared with 0 ng/mL remifentanil, remifentanil at concentrations of 0.5, 5.0, 50.0 and 500.0 ng/mL was able to significantly reduce the proliferation activity, numbers of migration andinvasion in SKOV3 and OVCAR3 cells as well as the protein expression levels of CyclinD1, MMP2 and MMP9, and significantly increase apoptosis rate and expression levels of Cleave-caspase-3 protein and lncRNA DGCR5 (P < 0.01). Compared with the si-NC group, low expression of lncRNA DGCR5 was able to significantly decrease the expression level of lncRNA DGCR5, apoptosis rate and expression level of Cleaved-caspase-3 protein in ovarian cancer cells SKOV3 and OVCAR3, and significantly increase cell proliferation activity, numbers of migration and invasion, and the protein expression levels of CyclinD1, MMP2 and MMP9 (P < 0.01). The low expression of lncRNA DGCR5 was able to reverse the effect of remifentanil on the proliferation, migration, invasion and apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells SKOV3 and OVCAR3.

Conclusion Remifentanil can inhibit the proliferation and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells SKOV3 and OVCAR3, and promote apoptosis of cells by up-regulating lncRNA DGCR5.