Hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cell apoptosis promoted by hTERT RNAi through cytochrome C dependent mitochondrial pathway / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To probe the mechanism of hepatocarcinoma cell apoptosis promoted by human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) RNA interference (RNAi) by mitochondrial pathway in vitro. Methods Westernblot was employed to detect the intracellular expressions of caspase-9, hTERT, Bcl-2 and Bax, and mitochondrial and cytoplastic cytochrome C (cyt C) in HepG2 cells transfected by pSliencer 3.1-H1 neo-shTERT (small hairpin RNA hTERT). Result In the HepG2 cells transfected by pSliencer 3.1-H1 neo-shTERT, expressions of hTERT, Bcl-2 and mitochondrial cyt C were significantly down-regulated, while Bax and cytoplastic cyt C were obviously up-regulated, and active caspase-9 was found in addition to procaspase-9 compared with that in negative control cells and untransfected cells. Conculsion hTERT RNAi may suppress hTERT expression to result in reduction of Bcl-2 and increase of Bax, and then induce hepatocarcinoma HepG2 cell apoptosis by mitochondrial pathway subsequent to cyt C release from mitochondria to cytoplast.