RESUMO
Objective To investigate the role of Tmubl protein in liver cell proliferation. Methods Using silenced lentivirus (LV)-Tmubl vector, over-expression LV-Tmubl vector, and corresponding empty vectors to transfect rat’s liver cell line BRL-3A to obtain stable transfected cells, which bear the expression of Tmubl protein as detected by Western blotting, cell proliferation with MTT, and cell cycle with flow cytometry. Results The Tumbl protein expression in the hepatocytes transfected by LV-Tmubl was increased significantly and that by LV-Tmubl-RNAi decreased significantly, with a statistically significant difference compared with normal hepatocytes (P<0.01). The proliferation was fastest in hepatocytes transfected by LV-Tmubl and slowest in those by LV-Tmubl-RNAi, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). The G2+S phase was longer in hepatocytes transfected by over-expression LV-Tmubl vectors than in those by silenced LV-Tmubl vectors, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). Conclusion Tmubl protein can promote the hepatocyte proliferation in BRL-3A cell line.