ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: As an important regulatory factor of cell cycle, transcription factor E2F-1 is closely related to tumorigenesis. This study was to investigate the effects of E2F-1 small interfering RNA (siRNA) on invasion and proliferation of human gastric cancer MGC803 cells. METHODS: E2F-1 siRNA vector containing short hairpin structure was transfected into MGC803 cells. Untransfected and pSilencer4.1-negative-transfected cells were used as controls. The expression of E2F-1 was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot. Cell matrigel invasion assay and cloning assay were used to detect the invasion and proliferation of MGC803 cells after E2F-1 siRNA transfection. RESULTS: At 48 h after E2F-1 siRNA transfection, the mRNA level of E2F-1 was down-regulated by over 90.0% of controls; the protein level of E2F-1 was down-regulated by 79.6% of negative control and by 81.5% of empty control. The number of migrated cells was significantly smaller in E2F-1 siRNA group than in negative and empty control groups (18.0+/-2.6 vs. 48.0+/-4.6 and 54.0+/-5.6, P<0.05). The number of cell clones was also significantly smaller in E2F-1 siRNA group than in negative and empty control groups (46.0+/-2.0 vs. 122.3+/-1.5 and 128.7+/-2.1, P<0.05) CONCLUSION: E2F-1 siRNA could down-regulate E2F-1 expression in human gastric cancer MGC803 cells and suppress its invasion and proliferation to some extent.