ABSTRACT
Aim To investigate the influence of down-regulating adenosine A1 receptor and adenosine A2 A receptor gene expression on proliferation and activation of acetaldehyde-induced hepatic stellate cell-T6 cells through siRNA. Methods Alcoholic liver fibrosis in vitro model was constructed by inducing HSC-T6 cells with acetaldehyde. siRNA targeting A1R and A2AR were designed and synthesized according to its mRNA. The siRNA was transfected into rat HSC-T6 cells by li-posome LipofectamineTM 2000. HSC cell proliferation was measured by MTT. The mRNA levels of A1R, A2AR, α-SMA, Collagen I in the supernatant of the cell culture were measured by Quantitative Real-Time PCR. The protein levels of A1R, A2AR, α-SMA, Collagen I were measured by Western blot. Results A1 R and A2 AR siRNA effectively inhibited the cell proliferation, and they also significantly decreased the levels of A1R, A2AR,α-SMA, Collagen I, suggesting that A1 R and A2 AR might be potential target genes in the alcoholic liver fibrosis. Conclusions Silencing A1 R or A2 AR by RNAi can significantly inhibit the HSC proliferation, A1R and A2AR may be potential therapeutic target genes for alcoholic liver fibrosis.