Down regulation of surviving gene and up regulation of p53 gene expression by siRNA induces apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2

Survivin gene may be a good target for cancer gene therapy because it is over expressed in a variety of human tumors including human hepatocellular carcinoma but not in differentiated adult tissues. To explore the effects of the siRNA of survivin gene inducing apoptosis in human hepatocellular cancer cells, three siRNAs cpusiRNA1, cpusiRNA2 and cpusiRNA3 were designed and transferred into human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 (HepG2) by lipofection. MTT test showed that the growth of HepG2 decreased when it was transfected with 25nM, 50nM, 100nM, 150nM, 200nM, 400nM siRNA respectively after 48 hours. And the change of mRNA and protein of survivin gene and p53 gene had been detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. Cells presented an increase in apoptosis index was assayed by flow cytometry. Small interfering RNA can exert a knockdown of survivin gene expression and up regulation of p53 gene to induce apoptosis and to inhibit the growth of HepG2.