Bmi-1沉默对K562细胞功能的影响

Effect of Silencing Bmi-1 by RNA Interference on Function of K562 Cell Line

Bmi-1是一种转录抑制子,属于Polycomb家族成员之一。Bmi-1基因在调控正常或白血病干细胞的自我更新中起着至关重要的作用。缺乏Bmi-1表达的急性髓系白血病细胞遭遇了增殖阻止和表现了分化和凋亡的征兆,这些发现导致有人提议和认为Bmi-1在白血病治疗中可作为潜在靶点。本研究探讨靶向针对Bmi-1的短发夹RNA(shRNA)对人慢性髓系白血病K562细胞功能的影响。采用RNA干扰技术,构建靶向针对Bmi-1的shRNA真核表达载体,利用脂质体lipofactamine2000将shRNA真核表达载体转染入K562细胞中,经G418(400μg/ml)筛选得到抗性克隆。用PCR和Western blot分别检测转染shRNA后K562细胞中Bmi-1的mRNA和蛋白水平的变化;以MTT法检测干扰组、对照组和未转染组细胞间的增殖情况;以集落形成实验测定3组间集落形成能力。结果表明:在设计的4个shRNA片段中,有1个片段显示显著的抑制效果。该shRNA转染K562细胞后,在mRNA水平上Bmi-1的表达明显下调,Western blot在蛋白水平上也证实了Bmi-1表达显著下调。MTT法和集落形成实验显示了干扰组、对照组和未转染组细胞3者间的增殖能力没有显著差异。结论:抑制Bmi-1的表达并不能减少K562细胞的增殖,这提示了可能存在其它一些平行的信号通路在细胞转化中起重要作用,而且可能独立于Bmi-1的过表达。Bmi-1在慢性髓系白血病的转化中起着次要的作用。

Bmi-1 is a transcriptional repressor, which belongs to the polycomb group family. It has been demonstinted that over-expression of Bmi-1 occurs in a variety of cancers, including several types of leukemia. Bmi-1 gene plays a key role in regulation of self-renewal in normal and leukemic stem cells. Acute myeloid leukemic cells lacking Bmi-1 undergo proliferation arrest and show signs of differentiation and apoptosis, which leads to the proposal of Bmi-1 as a potential target for therapeutic intervention in leukemia. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of short hairpin RNA（shRNA） targeting Bmi-1 on functions of K562 cell line. The shRNA eukaryotic expression vector targeting Bmi-1 was constructed and transfected into K562 cells through lipofactamine 2000. The mRNA and protein levels of Bmi-1 were detected by PCR and Western blot respectively. The proliferation of K562 after Bmi-1 silencing was measured by using MTT assay and clone formation assay. The cell cycle was detected by flow cytometry. The results indicated that among the four shRNA designed, there was a shRNA which efficiently interfered with the expression of Bmi-1. The results of PCR and Western blot validated that the Bmi-1 gene of K562 cells transfected with such a Bmi-1 shRNA was suppressed successfully. Although levels of Bmi-1 mRNA and protein were significantly reduced, delivery of this siRNAs had no effect on cell viability or growth. Flow cytometry analysis suggested that Bmi- 1 inhibition did not affect the cell cycle. It is concluded that the suppression of Bmi-1 expression is not able to reduce prohferation of K562 cells, suggesting existence of some other parallel signaling pathways, which are fundamental for leukemic transformation and are independent of Bmi-1 over-expression. Bmi-1 over-expression may play a secondary role in chronic myeloid leukemia transformation.