Effect of UHRF1 gene silencing on the progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells

Objective To investigate the effect of UHRF1 gene silencing on the progression of pancreatic adenocarcinoma( PAAD) cells.Methods A total of 30 patients with PAAD who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy in Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery,Leshan People's Hospital,from July to December,2018,were enrolled,and the non-necrotic PAAD tissue and the adjacent tissue were resected as samples.Semi-quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression of UHRF1 in these samples. After the short-hairpin RNA( sh RNA) plasmid vectors were constructed for the targeted silencing of the UHRF1 gene and were transfected into PAAD cells by the lentivirus infection method,MTT assay was used to evaluate cell proliferation,and Western blot was used to measure the expression of UHRF1,Bax,and Bcl-2. The independent samples t-test was used for comparison of continuous data between two groups; a one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between multiple groups,and the least significant difference t-test was used for further comparison between two groups. Results The expression of UHRF1 in PAAD tissue was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissue( t =18. 131,P <0. 001). Compared with the UHRF1 group,the UHRF1-sh RNA group had a significant reduction in the protein expression of UHRF1 in PAAD cells( t = 3. 882,P = 0. 023),with inhibited cell proliferation at 12 and 36 hours after transfection( t = 4. 365 and19. 042,P = 0. 005 and P < 0. 001). Compared with the adjacent tissue group and the UHRF1 group,the UHRF1-sh RNA group had a significant increase in the expression of the pro-apoptotic protein Bax( F = 862. 366,P < 0. 001) and a significant reduction in the expression of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2( F = 170. 167,P < 0. 001),suggesting that UHRF1 gene silencing had a pro-apoptotic effect. Conclusion The expression of the UHRF1 gene is significantly upregulated in PAAD tissue,and UHRF1 gene silencing can inhibit the growth of PAAD tissue,possibly by inducing tumor cell apoptosis. UHRF1 may be a new molecular target for the treatment of PAAD.