Vitronectin silencing inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo.

Aim: To explore if inhibition of vitronectin can be used for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Materials & Methods: RNAi technology was used to silence the expression of VTN in HepG2 and SMMC 7721 cells. Change of growth characteristics in these cells was evaluated.

Results: VTN silencing does not affect growth characteristics of cancer cells in monolayer cell culture, but could suppress the colonized growth of cells in soft agar. VTN-siRNA suppresses colony formation more than 80% compared with that of control in SMMC7721cells and leads to the inhibition of colony formation of over 70% in HepG2 cells. In addition, VTN silencing decreases the size of tumor xenografts in nude mice, particularly in male mice, with an inhibition rate of 46.6%.

Conclusion: VTN plays a significant role in the malignant growth of tumor. Inhibition of VTN could potentially be applied for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.