Objective: To study the effect of down-regulation of histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2) expression on cell proliferation and cell cycle in cervical carcinoma cell lines HeLa.
Methods: HDAC2 siRNA and control siRNA were transfected to HeLa cells. CCK-8 and flow cytometry were used to analyze the changes of cell proliferation and cell cycle, respectively. Western blot was employed to detect the changes of cell proliferation and cell cycle-related proteins.
Results: HDAC2 siRNA significantly down-regulated the expression of HDAC2 protein in HeLa cells, resulting in marked inhibition of cell proliferation. In addition, the percentage of cells in G(0)/G(1) phase in HDAC2 siRNA group (63.3% ± 2.0%) was significantly higher than that in untreated group (29.3% ± 1.7%) or control siRNA group (29.4% ± 1.7%), F = 354.181, P = 0.000. Furthermore, Western blot demonstrated that down-regulation of HDAC2 expression decreased the expression of cyclin D1, cyclin E and CDK2 proteins but increased the expression of p21 protein.
Conclusions: Down-regulation of HDAC2 expression mediates proliferation inhibition and cell cycle arrest. It is associated with decrease in cyclin D1, cyclin E and CDK2 protein expression and increase in p21 protein expression.