Objective Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) has been identified to regulate DNA methylation, histone acetylation, and gene post-transcriptional regulation in kinds of diseases, including tumorigenesis, obesity and so on.Therefore, lncRNAs might be the potential targets of mesangial cells proliferation.Methods Mesangial cells were exposed to suitable concentration of TGF-β through cell proliferation assay;then the lncRNAs expression levels were detected by microarray in experimental group and control group separately;finally the differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified by RT-PCR;meanwhile, and the expression levels of target genes were also detected by RT-PCR.Results Cell viability assay confirmed that 10 ng/ml TGF-β could promote mesangial cell proliferation significantly.Totally, over 30 000 lncRNAs were detected in TGF-β treated MCs and control group cells separately.Compared to the control group, 5550 lncRNAs differentially expressed in TGF-β treated MCs, including 119 up-regulated and 147 down-regulated over 2 fold.RT-PCR results appeared that uc.60, MRAK079149, MRAK029456, XR_005507, XR_007641, uc.14, and uc.412 were significantly up-regulated in TGF-β treated MCs, and BC088254, DQ402472, BC098733, BC158832,BC098746 were stably down-regulated.Compared to the control group, the mRNA expression levels of AATF and NEK were increased in the TGF-β treated mesangial cells (P ＜ 0.05).AATF and NEK were downstream target genes of uc.412 and MRAK079149 respectively.Conclusion The differential expression of long noncoding RNAs presents in the experimental mesangial cells proliferation induced by TGF-β.