OBJECTIVETo investigate the effect of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) targeting survivin on adhesion and invasion of human colon carcinoma cell line SW480 in vitro.

METHODSAccording to the sequence of the coding region of survivin gene, two strings of 19 nucleotides of inverted sequence flanking the loop sequence of two complementary 9-base oligonucleotides were designed and synthesized to prepare the hairpin construct as the DNA templates for the target shRNA. The shRNA templates were cloned into shRNA expression vector pRNAT-U6.1/Neo, and the resulted vector pRNAT-U6.1/Neo-survivin was transfected into SW480 cells using Lipofectamine 2000. Western blotting was performed to evaluate survivin gene silencing induced by shRNA transfection at the protein level, and the biological behaviors of the SW480 cells were investigated by cell-matrix adhesion, invasion and gelatin-zymography assays.

RESULTSWestern blotting revealed significantly lowered survivin protein expression in transfected SW480 cells, and survivin gene silencing induced by shRNA significantly suppressed the metastatic potential of SW480 cells in association with suppressed MMPs activity.

CONCLUSIONSSurvivin may play an important role in modulating human colorectal carcinoma cell invasion and metastasis, and survivin gene silencing can inhibit human colorectal cancer cell invasion and the production of MMP-2 and MMP-9. Survivin may affect invasion and metastasis of human colorectal carcinoma cells via regulating the production of MMPs.