In vivo inhibitory effect of lentivirus-mediated RNA interference targeting RhoC on growth of SKOV3 cells

Abstract

To investigate the inhibitory effect of lentivirus-mendiated RNA interference targeting RhoC on the growth of SKOV3 cells(ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells) in vivo, the vector expressing RNA interference targeting RhoC gene(LV-shRhoC) was constructed and the virus particles were packaged. The infection effiency of SKOV3 cells by the virus was estimated by green fluorescent protein expression on a fluorescence microscope and the expression of RhoC gene in the SKOV3 cells was detected by reverse transcription real time polymerase chain reaction(PCR). Furthermore, human ovarian cancer SKOV3 cells, empty vector infected SKOV3 cells and interfered-vector infected SKOV3 cells were respectively seeded into nude mice, and the shape, mass, volume and histophathological changes of the transplanted tumors were observed 20 d later the mice were sacrified. The results show that lentivirus packaging particles can effectively infect SKOV3 cells and the lentivirus-mediated RNA interference can significantly inhibit the expression of RhoC gene in SKOV3 cells, the mass and volume of the transplanted tumor in the mice of the specific-control group(Lv-shRhoC) are all lower than the corresponding ones in the mice of negative- and blank-control groups(Lv-NC and SKOV3). Moreover, the histopathlosical secion investigation shows that the nuclear Karyotype and histopathologic mitotic figure of SKOV3 cells in mice of the specific-control group are clearly lower than those in the mice of the negative-control group.Thus it is concluded that silencing RhoC gene by means of lentivirus-mediated RNA interference targeting RhoC can obviously inhibit the growth of ovarian cancer cells(SKOV3) in vivo, which is a new strategy for the gene therapy of ovarian cancers.