Objective To investigate the effects of long chain non-coding RNA urothelial carcinoembryonic antigen 1(UCA1) on invasion, migration and proliferation abilities in oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines SCC15 and CAL27.Methods Small interfering RNA of UCA1(UCA1-siRNA) was transfected into SCC15 and CAL27 cell lines by LipofectamineTM 3000 to silence UCA1, and transfected negtive control si-RNA served as a control.The effect of UCA 1-siRNA was detected by quantitative real time-polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR) to confirm the successful inhibition of UCA1 by siRNA.The matrix metalloproteinase 9(MMP-9) protein level was detected by Western blotting analysis.The effect of siRNA on cell proliferation and invasion was assessed by transwell migration assay and wound healing assay.Cell counting kit-8(CCK-8) assay was carried out to estimate the proliferation of two cell lines with different expression levels of UCA1.Results Expressions of UCA1 of SCC15 and CAL27 were successfully suppressed after transfected with siRNA which verified by qRT-PCR, and the efficiency of downregulation of SCC15 and CAL27 was 86.45％(P＜0.001)and 78.24％(P＜0.001), respectively.The migration, invasion and proliferation of SCC15 and CAL27 cell lines after transfected with siRNA were obviously restrained.The number of migration and invasion of CAL27 cells were 719.20±92.36 versus 208.00±25.58 (P=0.000 7) and 363.40±45.96 versus 164.80±24.68(P=0.005 2), respectively, the number of migration and invasion of SCC15 cells were 437.20±54.75 vs 145.80±23.31(P=0.001 1) and 249.80±38.41 vs 63.80± 11.11 (P=0.001 6), respectively (UCA1-si compare to negtive control), the relative proliferation rates of SCC 15 and CAL27 were SCC15:R24 h=0.870, R48 h=0.863, R72 h=0.64, R96 h=0.732;CAL27: R24 h=0.913, R48 h=0.829, R72 h=0.756, R96 h=0.705(P＜0.05), and MMP-9 expression level was decreased by UCA1-siRNA compared with negative control.Conclusions UCA1 could enhance the ability of invasion and migration of SCC15 and CAL27 cell lines via regulating MMP-9 protein expression, which suggests that UCA1 might play a pivotal role in oral squamous cell carcinoma invasion and progression.