Objective: This study was performed to evaluate the effect of mammary serine protease inhibitor (maspin) overexpression on human cervical squamous carcinoma (SCC) SiHa cell proliferation and apoptosis in vitro.
Material and methods: Recombinant plasmid pcDNA3-maspin was stably transfected into human cervical SCC SiHa cell. Maspin mRNA was determined by RT-PCR, whereas maspin protein was detected by Western blot analysis and immunocytochemistry (IHC). Cell proliferation activity was measured by MTT method. Apoptosis rate and cell cycle distribution were detected by flow cytometry to understand the changes in the cell biological characteristics.
Results: The strengthened expression of the maspin gene in the SiHa cell was confirmed by RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunocytochemistry (IHC) (p < 0.05). Suppressed proliferation activity and increased apoptosis rate of SiHa-m (maspin stable transfected) versus SiHa and SiHa-vector cell (SiHa-pc3) were shown by MTT and flow cytometry (p < 0.05). SiHa and SiHa-pc3-had no statistical significance (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: The results showed that maspin gene can significantly inhibit human cervical SCC SiHa cell proliferation and effectively slow cancer growth. Maspin may be a new molecular target in the gene therapy of human cervical SCC.