Expression of LINC00491 in ESCC tissues and cells. (A) RT-qPCR was used to detect the relative expression of LINC00491 in 16 cases of ESCC, among which the expression of LINC00491 was upregulated in 13 cases. Expression of lncRNA was normalized to GAPDH. (B) RT-qPCR was used to detect the relative expression of LINC00491 in ESCC cell lines and human normal esophageal epithelial cells. Data are presented as the mean ± SD, the expressions of LINC00491 in KYSE-410, KYSE-30 and HEEC cells were 88.12±16.59, 225.92±31.79 and 1.03±0.28, respectively. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 vs. HEEC. (C and D) Three specific sh-LINC00491 were transfected into esophageal squamous cells. After 48 h, RT-qPCR was used to detect the expression of LINC00491 in KYSE-30 cells and KYSE-410 cells. The expressions of LINC00491 in sh-LINC00491#1, sh-LINC00491#2, sh-LINC00491#3 and sh-NC were 0.66±0.18, 0.47±0.25, 0.82±0.16 and 1.00±0.02, respectively. In KYSE-410 cells, the expressions of LINC00491 in sh-LINC00491#1, sh-LINC00491#2, sh-LINC00491#3 and sh-NC were 0.69±0.22, 0.54±0.13, 0.64±0.09 and 1.01±0.16, respectively. *P<0.05 vs. sh-NC. NC, negative control; sh, short hairpin RNA; LINC00491, long intergenic non-protein coding RNA 491; ESCC, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; RT-qPCR, reverse transcription-quantitative PCR.