Abstract: Objective To explore the effect of lentivirus-mediated shRNA interference of Cx26 on epithelial-mesenchymal
transition (EMT) and invasion of highly invasive human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro. Methods SK-Hep-1 cells were
infected with the lentivirus for delivering Cx26 shRNA, and the stably transfected cells were selected by puromycin. The
interference efficiency of shRNA-Cx26 was assessed with real-time PCR and Western blotting. The morphological changes of
the transfected SK-Hep-1 cells were observed microscopically, and the protein expressions of E-cadherin and vimentin were
detected using Western blotting. The effect of Cx26 interference on the invasiveness of SK-Hep-1 cells was determined by
Transwell invasion assay. Results Compared with SK-Hep-1 cells infected with empty EGFP vector and uninfected cells, the
cells transfected with shRNA-Cx26 showed significantly reduced mRNA and protein expressions of Cx26 (P<0.01), which
resulted in obvious morphological conversion from mesenchymal cells to epithelial cells. shRNA-Cx26-transfected cells
showed significantly increased E-cadherin protein expression (P<0.01) but decreased vimentin expression (P<0.01) with
obviously attenuated invasive ability in vitro (P<0.01). Conclusion Targeted down-regulation of Cx26 expression can inhibit the
EMT and invasion of SK-Hep-1 cells in vitro.