Objective To investigate the expression of long non-coding RNA Linc00645 in glioma tissues and its effect on the proliferation, invasion and migration of glioma cells, and to explore its possible mechanisms. Methods The expression of Linc00645 in normal brain tissues and glioma tissues in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA-GBM) database and the Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA) database were analyzed, and quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to verify the expression in Normal Human Astrocyte and 5 glioma cell lines. After knocking down the expression of Linc00645, MTT assay was used to detect the proliferation capacity of the glioma cells, and the wound healing assay and the Transwell assay were conducted to evaluate the migration and invasion ability of the cells. Western Blot was performed to verify the effect of Linc00645 knockdown on the invasion and migration-related proteins of glioma cells at the protein level. Results The expression of Linc00645 in glioma tissues was significantly higher than that in normal brain tissues (P<0.05), and the expression of Linc00645 increased along with the advance of the pathological grade of glioma (P<0.05). In the Linc00645 high expression group, the overall survival period was significantly shorter and the prognosis was worse (P<0.05). After inhibiting the expression of Linc00645, the proliferation, invasion and migration ability of glioma cells were significantly reduced. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that EMTlike related markers N-cadherin, Vimentin and zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1 were positively correlated with Linc00645, while E-cadherin was negatively correlated with Linc00645 ( P<0.05). The expression of E-cadherin increased, while the expression of N-cadherin, Vimentin and ZEB1 significantly decreased after knocking down the expression Linc00645. Conclusions Long non-coding RNA Linc00645 is highly expressed in glioma tissues, and its expression is closely related to the malignancy of the tumor. Linc00645 could increase the expression of N-cadherin, Vimentin and ZEB1 to enhance the invasion and migration ability of glioma cells. Therefore, Linc00645 may serve as a new target for early diagnosis and treatment of glioma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]