二乙基亚硝胺所诱导大鼠肝癌表达上调的基因

Expression of MT1E during the formation of hepatocellular carcinoma and its function in hepatocarcinoma cells

AIM: To investigate the expression of MT1E mRNA at different stages of liver cancer development and its biological functions in hepatocarcinoma cells.

METHODS: Rat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models were induced by diethylnitrosamine (DEN), and the dynamic histological changes of liver tissue and the differential expression of MT1E gene were observed after the 4^th, 8^th, 16^th and 20^th weeks. Two siRNA targets toward MT1E gene were designed, recombinant plasmid was transfected into HCC cell line SMMC-7721, the gene expression of MT1E was determined using real-time quantitative PCR, and the cell viability was determined by MTT assay.

RESULTS: At the 4^th week and 8^th week the major pathological changes presented inflammatory changes in liver tissue, after 16^th week presented typical proliferation changes, until 20^th week developed into HCC. According to the gene chip results, the expression of MT1E was increased significantly after 16^th week, with significant difference compared with control group (gene chip reading: 11524 vs 5462). An effective siRNA target sequence in MT1E was got, the gene expression was decreased greatly at the 72 h after transfection compared with blank control group and negative control group (0.38 vs 1.00, 0.93, both P < 0.01). MTT assay result displayed, the cell growth and proliferation were depressed obviously when interference target was effectively transfected 144 h (0.1700 ± 0.0313 vs 0.5748 ± 0.0480, P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: DEN-induced rat HCC models were established successfully, the expression of MT1E is increased obviously at the later stage of development of HCC, perhaps related to the malignant proliferation of tumor cells.