Silencing of sox2 over expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cell line by sirna

Zohreh Bahadori,1 Zahra hosseini-khah,2,* Behrooz nikbin,3 Alireza rafiei,4 Abolghasem ajami,5 Mohsen tehrani,6

1. Dept. & Center for Biotechnology Research, Semnan university of Medical sciences, Semnan, Iran.
2. 1. Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
3. 4. Department of Immunology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4. 2. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
5. 2. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran
6. 2. Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

Abstract

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) is the fifth common malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. the molecular mechanisms regulating stemness and tumor progression in hcc is still poorly defined. sex determining region y-box 2 (sox2) is a stem cell transcription factor and a major regulator of self-renewal and pluripotency of cancer stem cells. it is overexpressed in many types of cancers and its over expression is related to poor prognosis, tumor progression, and low survival rate. the objective of this study was to investigate the silencing effects of sox2 expression using sirna on cell proliferation in hepg2 cells.

Methods

Silencing of sox2 in hepg2 cells was performed to evaluate the effect of sox2 inhibition in vitro. after silencing, sox2 expression was assessed in mrna and protein level with qrt-pcr and western blotting respectively. evaluation of cell proliferation after sox2 silencing was done by mtt method.

Results

The findings of this study showed that silencing of sox2 by si-sox2 significantly reduced the expression of sox2 expression at the mrna level (p = 0.002). although sox2 expression decreased at protein level, but it was not statistically significant (p = 0.1). inhibition of the sox2 gene reduced the proliferation of hepg2 cells (p = 0.01).

Conclusion

Our results provide a new insight into the importance of sox2 in hcc and suggest sox2 as a potential therapeutic target in prognosis and treatment of hcc patients.

Keywords

Inhibition of sox2, si-rna, hepatocellular carcinoma, cell proliferation