Objective To study the effect of lincRNA-p21 on the proliferation of renal cell carcinoma.Methods The expression levels of lincRNA-p21in renal cell carcinoma tissues and their corresponding para-cancerous tissues from 17 patients in department of nephrology,Hua Xi hospital,was detected by RT-PCR.In addition,the expression of lincRNA-p21 was analyzed in human clear cell RCC cell line 786-O and human embryonic kidney cell line HEK-293.The cell proliferation,apoptosis and the expression of Bax、Noxa、Puma that participated in p53 signaling pathway were detected after lincRNA-p21 was downregulated with siRNA.Results The expression levels of lincRNA-p21was higher in renal cell carcinoma tissues and 786-O cells than para-cancerous tissues and HEK-293 cells respectively(P ＜ 0.05).The ability of proliferation was significantly increased after lincRNA-p21 siRNA treatment in 786-O cells,whereas the cell apoptosis was decreased (P ＜ 0.05).The mRNA expressions of Bax,Noxa,Puma were also dramatically decreased after lincRNA-p21 was downregulated(P ＜0.05).Conclusion LincRNA-p21 inhibits the cell proliferation of 786-O cells through participation in p53 signal transduction pathways.These data suggested that lincRNA-p21 maybe could be used as molecular targets for human RCC treatment.