Biological effects of survivin antisense olignucleotide on human hepatocarcinoma cells

    ZHANG Huiª²Zhong, GAO Ping, LIN Fang1, LIU Li

    1Center of Clinical Research, 2Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710038, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To explore the biological effects of survivin antisense olignucleotide (ASODN) on the growth, apoptosis and sensitivity to chemotherapy of human hepatocarcinoma cells. METHODS: ASODN targeting survivin gene was designed and synthezised. Using hepatocarcinoma cell line SMMCª²7721 with over expression of survivin gene as target cell and ASODN as gene expression blocking agent, cell growth inhibition by survivin ASODN was determined by MTT assay. Cell morphological changes were observed under microscope, survivin expression was detected by Western blot and cell growth and mitotic characteristics were analyzed by flow cytometry. Effect of ASODN on sensitivity of the cells to chemotherapy was also identified by MTT assay. RESULTS: The expression of survivin in ASODN treated hepatocarcinoma cells was significantly blocked and the growth of hepatocarcinoma cells was suppressed by ASODN. The SMMCª²7721 cell cycle was arrested in metaphase and cell apoptosis and abnormal morphological changes were observed in these cells. MTT assay results showed that the IC50 of Taxol to ASODN treated cells and control cells was (16.2¡À2.2) ¦Ìg/L and (35.5¡À4.3) ¦Ìg/L, respectively, with significant difference between the two groups (P<0 01). CONCLUSION: Survivin ASODN can effectively block survivin gene expression in hepatocarcinoma cells, induce apoptosis of these cells, inhibit the cell proliferation and increase the cell sensitivity to Taxol therapy, indicating that survivin gene may become a new target for hepatocarcinoma bioª²treatment. ......