Attenuation of alpha1 collagen production with antisense ribonucleic acid in cultured hypertrophic scar fibroblasts.

Background: It has been demonstrated that hypertrophic scar fibroblasts (HSFs) overexpress collagen messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and protein, especially alpha1 collagen. Antisense nucleic acids are effective in inhibiting harmful or uncontrolled gene expression, suggesting that antisense ribonucleic acid (RNA) can effectively downregulate the expression of alpha1 collagen gene and attenuate the scars.

Aims: This study was conducted to observe the effect of recombinant plasmid pREP9-COL1 on alpha1 collagen expression in HSFs and clarify the prospect of antisense RNA on scar treatment.

[Effects of centrifuge training on mRNA expression in different rat tissues].

Objective: To demonstrate the tissue specific expression of five rat genes related to centrifuge training and the relationship between expression change and duration of training.

Method: mRNA was extracted from hearts, brains, kidneys, lungs and intestines of rats after different durations of training. Five genes obtained by SSH from centrifuge-trained rats were labeled by Dig-11-dUTP as probes.

Construction of survivin siRNA expression vector and its regulation on cell cycle and proliferation in MCF-7 cells.

Background & Objective: Survivin is specifically overexpressed in tumor tissues. Many reports have shown that the abrogation of its functions is useful for tumor therapy. RNA interference is a new technique that proved to be effective for suppressing gene expression.

[Construction of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) gene vaccine and stable coexpression with an immune adjuvant].

Background & Objective: Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) positive cancers are poorly responded to different kinds of treatments. Gene vaccines are promising in research of gene immunotherapy for these tumors. In this study, a CEA gene vaccine with hIL-2 as an immune adjuvant was constructed into a pVAX1 vector for synchronous expression, so as to explore experimentally a new biotherapy strategy against tumors.

Short hairpin RNAs induced RNA interference in human cells.

Background & Objective: RNA interference (RNAi) is an evolutionarily conserved posttranscriptional gene silencing, in which the introduction of double-stranded RNA into a cell leads to specific suppression of gene expression. RNAi has become an important tool for gene function studies. The aim of this study was to induce RNAi in mammalian cells by short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) generated from a DNA vector, therefore, to provide a new approach for gene function analysis.