Effects Of Silencing Galectin-1 Gene By RNAi On The Behavior Of Hepatocyte Carcinoma Cells

Objectives To establish the experiment condition of RNA interference to galectin-1 mRNA and investigate the roles of galectin-1 in the regulation of cell biological behaviour of hepatocyte carcinoma cells.Methods Human hepatocyte carcinoma cells of HePG2 was cultured at 37℃in a CO2 incubator. Special stealth RNAi was transfected to hepatocyte carcinoma cells to restrain the expression of galectin-1 mRNA. RT-PCR was used to test the silencing rate of galectin-1 gene expression.Flow cytometry was used to examine the apoptosis of HePG2 cell. The cell proliferation was examined by MTT assay and the invasion ability was tested by millicell chambers.Results After the transfection for 48 and 72 hours, compared to the blank control, the expression of galectin-1 mRNA in HePG2 cells decreased to 15.7% and 12.3%. The cell proliferation rate was reduced to 57.2% and the number of cells undergoing apoptosis significantly increased to 22.5% after the transfection for 48 hours. Meanwhile, the galectin-1 mRNA expression restraining also resulted in an inhibition of cell migration rate to 53.1%.Conclusion RNA interference based on siRNA can effectively inhibit galectin-1 gene expression in HePG2 cells. Silencing galectin-1 gene has an obviously deterrent effect on the cell biological behavior of HePG2 cells. The results suggested that the galectin-1 gene expression in hepatocyte carcinoma cells may play an important role in the tumor occurrence and development.