Abstract: Objective To investigate the effects of siRNA targeting CD 147 gene on the expression of CD147 in melanoma cell line A375, and on proliferation of these cells. Methods Previously prepared recombinant plasmid pSUPER/CD147 siRNA was used. In this study, the recombinant was transfected into the A375 cells. The mRNA expression of CD147 was measured by semi-quantitive RT-PCR, the proliferation of the cells by MTT assay. Results After the transfection with pSUPER/CD147 siRNA1 and pSU-PER/CD147 siRNA2, the mRNA expression of CD147 in the A375 cells was significantly down-regulated by 90.81% (P<0.001) and 13.37% (P<0.05) respectively. The proliferation levels of transfected tumor cells at 24, 48 and 72 h after the transfection with pSUPER/CD147 siRNA1 also decreased significantly by 49.42%, 52.60% and 53.33% respectively (P<0.05,<0.001,<0.001, respectively). Conclusion siRNA targeting CD147 gene could effectively inhibit the expression of CD147 in A375 cells, and inhibit the proliferation of these cells.

Key words: RNA, small interfering, Melanoma, Cell proliferation, CD147