Effects and mechanism of integrin-β1 gene expression inhibited by shRNA in invasion of pancreatic carcinoma PANC-1 cells.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the effects of integrin-β1 gene expression inhibited by shRNA on invasion of pancreatic carcinoma PANC-1 cells in vitro. METHODOLOGY: The eukaryotic expression plasmid of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting integrin-β1 gene (integrin-β1-shRNA) was constructed and transfected into PANC-1 cells. The expressions of integrin-β1 mRNA and protein were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot assay, respectively. The invasive ability of PANC-1 cells was observed with a transwell cell culture chamber and the expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were assayed. RESULTS: Compared to the untransfected group, recombinant expression plasmid integrin-β1-shRNA resulted in reduction of integrin-β1 mRNA and protein by 78.58%±7.24% and 92.88%±3.18%, respectively and the average number of invading PANC-1 cells were decreased from 52±5 to 21±4 (p<0.01) and the expressions of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were inhibited. CONCLUSIONS: Recombinant expression plasmid integrin-β1- shRNA can inhibit the expression of integrin-β1 gene and suppress the invasion of PANC-1 cells in vitro significantly.