title: Knockdown of β-catenin expression inhibits neuroblastoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of β-catenin gene silencing on regulation of the biological behavior of neuroblastoma BE(2)C cells in vivo and in vitro.
  
  
  METHODS
  A lentivirus, carrying β-catenin siRNA, was used to stably knockdown β-catenin expression in neuroblastoma BE(2)C cells for assessing tumor cell viability, colony formation, cell cycle distribution, apoptosis, xenograft formation, and growth in nude mice.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Levels of β-catenin expression were markedly decreased in BE(2)C cells. Downregulation of β-catenin was concomitantly accompanied by reductions in colony formation and invasion capacity and by growth inhibition of BE(2)C cells in vitro. The mechanism appears to be a G0/G1 phase arrest and induction of apoptosis. In vivo, both tumor volume and weight of β-catenin knockdown cells were obviously reduced compared to the control and parental cells.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  β-Catenin knockdown could effectively control growth of neuroblastoma cells in vitro and in nude mice, suggesting that targeting β-catenin may be useful in clinical control of neuroblastoma.
authors: Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, P.R. China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Yao
authors: Kai
authors: K
authors: Li
authors: Shan
authors: S
authors: Zheng
authors: Xianmin
authors: X
authors: Xiao
authors: Yangyang
authors: Y
authors: Ma
authors: Xiaowen
authors: X
authors: Zhai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015153:Blotting, Western; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D055785:Gene Knockdown Techniques / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D010641:Phenotype; D034622:RNA Interference; D011897:Random Allocation; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D051176:beta Catenin
keywords: BE(2)C; Neuroblastoma; RNA interference; β-Catenin