Down-regulation of Stat3 induces apoptosis of human glioma cell: a potential method to treat brain cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Glioma is the most common brain tumor in central nervous system. Traditional therapies are not effective to cure this disease. Stat3 is a member of the signal transducer and activator of transcription family, and it has the potential to mediate cell survival, growth and differentiation.


METHODS
In this study, we testified that Stat3 was constitutively expressed in glioma cell line SHG44 and then investigated the role of a low level of Stat3 expression in glioma cells by constructing an interfering RNA expression plasmid.


RESULTS
The results showed that glioma cells underwent morphologic and biochemical changes after the RNAi treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
We hypothesized that a low level of Stat3 expression could induce apoptosis of glioma cell, which further proved that Stat3 played an important role in growth, survival and proliferation of glioma cells. This study provides a new alternative to gene therapy for glioma treatment.
Ren
Wenwen
W
Laboratory of Neural Molecular Biology, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China.
Duan
Yanhong
Y
Yang
Yang
Y
Ji
Yonghua
Y
Chen
Fuxue
F
D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005910:Glioma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis; D006801:Humans; D034622:RNA Interference / Q000502:physiology; D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D013997:Time Factors; D014162:Transfection
D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor; C494086:STAT3 protein, human; C485184:enhanced green fluorescent protein; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins