人端粒酶催化亚单位锤头状核酶诱导肝癌细胞凋亡的作用

目的 构建带有U6启动子的人端粒酶催化亚单位锤头状核酶真核表达质粒及其突变体,转染入肝癌细胞株SMMC7721,观察端粒酶活性、细胞增殖和凋亡的情况。 方法 用分子克隆技术构建由U6作为启动子、绿色荧光蛋白基因作为报告基因的核酶真核表达质粒pGTRz-U6及其突变体pGTmRz-U6,并以空质粒pEGFP-C1作为对照。Lipofectamine2000转染人肝癌细胞株SMMC7721,G418筛选阳性克隆。RT-PCR检测核酶及hTERT基因的表达,四甲基偶氮唑盐(MTT)作细胞生长曲线观察其生长情况,TRAP-银染法检测端粒酶活性变化,流式细胞计数(FCM)法检测细胞的凋亡水平。 结果 核酶、突变核酶在SMMC7721中持续表达;凝胶成像系统分析SMMC7721-pEGFP-C1、SMMC7721-mRz、SMMC7721-Rz hTERT基因表达,用SPSS10.0软件对3种细胞进行分析,发现三者hTERT基因表达水平不同(F=47.987,P<0.01);t检验分析得出SMMC7721-Rz hTERT基因表达明显低于SMMC7721-mRz和SMMC7721- pEGFP-C1(t值分别为-7.640和-11.602,P值均<0.01)。SMMC7721-pEGFP-C1和SMMC7721-mRz hTERT表达没有区别(t=-0.178,P>0.05)。TRAP-银染及FCM结果分别显示,随着细胞的分裂,SMMC7721-Rz和SMMC7721-mRz细胞端粒酶活性逐渐降低,凋亡水平逐渐增加,7PDS细胞凋亡率分别是29.86％和9.87％,而对照组SMMC

Hammerhead ribozyme against human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) induced apoptosis of liver cancer cells

Objective To construct vector pEGFP-C1-hTERT-ribozyme (pGTRz-U6) and its mutant (pGTmRz-U6) against hTERT containing U6 promoter, then transfect them into human liver cancer cell line SMMC7721 to observe the action of the human telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) hammerhead ribozyme on proliferation and apoptosis of human liver cancer cell SMMC7721. Methods Eukaryotic expressing vector pGTRz U6 and mutant pGTmRz-U6 were constructed and transfected into SMMC7721 using Lipofectamine2000 Reagent, with pEGFP-C1 as the control group. After strict screening by G418, positive clones were cultured; the amount of expression of ribozyme and hTERT was detected by RT-PCR; cell proliferation by MTT; telomerase activity by TRAP and silver staining assay; cell apoptosis by FCM. Results We found that the two ribozymes were expressed persistently in SMMC7721; different expression levels (P < 0.01) of hTERT among SMMC7721-Rz, SMMC7721-mRz and SMMC7721-pEGFP-C1 was exhibited by the analysis of variance with SPSS software. The difference between SMMC7721-Rz and the others is significant in t-test (P < 0.01), while there was no difference between SMMC7721- mRz and SMMC7721-pEGFP-C1 (P > 0.05). With the advance of cell division, telomerase activities of the cells treated by SMMC7721-Rz and SMMC7721-mRz decreased gradually, and the percentage of apoptosis of the cells transfected with Rz and mRz increased gradually. The apoptosis percentage of 7PDS SMMC7721-Rz was 29.86%, while those of SMMC7721-mRz and SMMC7721-pEGFP-Cl were 9.87% and 3.36%, respectively. Conclusion The apoptosis level of SMMC7721 induced by hTERT ribozyme increases as cells divide, and this ribozyme maybe a potential approach for liver cancer gene therapy.