Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the proliferation,autophagy and the potential mechanism of Ubiquitin-like with PHD and ring finger domains 1(UHRF1)in lung adenocarcinoma cells. Methods The expression of UHRF1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was determined by the bioinformatics website(TCGA). The expression of UHRF1 in lung adenocarci-noma cell lines(PC-9,A549 and H1299)and human bronchial epithelial cells(16HBE)was detected by qRT-PCR and Western blot. After transfection of UHRF1-shRNA,CCK-8,clone formation and ki67 were performed to detect the changes in the prolifera-tive capacity of lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. Western blot was used to detect the changes of autophagy-associated proteins(LC3-I/II and Beclin-1)and proliferation-related proteins(CDK6,Rb and PCNA). Transmission electron microscopy was used to ob-serve the effect of UHRF1 on autophagosomes in A549 cells. Results The expression of UHRF1 in lung adenocarcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues. Compared with normal bronchial epithelial 16HBE cells,the mRNA and protein levels of UHRF1 in lung adenocarcinoma A549 and H1299 cells were significantly increased. In addition,CCK-8 assay and colony forma-tion experiments showed that silencing UHRF1 reduced the growth of A549 cells. Ki-67 immunofluorescence staining showed that the proliferation ability of A549 cells after knocking out UHRF1 was significantly lower than that in the normal control group. Further-more,knockdown of UHRF1 resulted in an increased expression of CKD6 and PCNA proteins in comparison with the control-siRNA group. The expression of Rb protein was down-regulated in the UHRF1-siRNA group. Silencing UHRF1 increased the ratio of LC3-II/LC3-I, induced up -regulation of Beclin -1 expression and promoted the formation of autophagic bodies in A549 cells. Conclusion UHRF1 is highly expressed in lung adenocarcinoma,and silencing UHRF1 can inhibit proliferation. This effect may be regulated by promoting autophagy.