Knockdown of β-catenin expression inhibits neuroblastoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of beta-catenin gene silencing on regulation of the biological behavior of neuroblastoma BE(2)C cells in vivo and in vitro. Methods: A lentivirus, carrying beta-catenin siRNA, was used to stably knockdown beta-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 beta-catenin expression were markedly decreased in BE(2)C cells. Downregulation of beta-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 beta-catenin knockdown cells were obviously reduced compared to the control and parental cells. Conclusion: beta-Catenin knockdown could effectively control growth of neuroblastoma cells in vitro and in nude mice, suggesting that targeting beta-catenin may be useful in clinical control of neuroblastoma. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.