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-beta 1 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-beta 1 gene (integrin-beta 1-shRNA) was constructed and transfected into PANC-1 cells. The expressions of integrin-beta 1 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-beta 1-shRNA resulted in reduction of integrin-beta 1 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-beta 1-shRNA can inhibit the expression of integrin-beta 1 gene and suppress the invasion of PANC-1 cells ill vitro significantly.