Down-regulated expression of Annexin A7 induces apoptosis in mouse hepatocarcinoma cell line by the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway

Our previous studies have shown that decreased expression of Annexin A7 elevates apoptosis in Hca-P cells, a hepatocarcinoma cell line with lymphatic metastatic potential. In this study, RNA interference technique was used to down-regulate the expression of Annexin A7, and unmanipulated Hca-P cells and transfected nonspecific-sequence Hca-P cells as control. The down-regulation of Annexin A7 declined the cell viability after cisplatin exposure. And the reduced expression of Annexin A7 decreased the expression of Bcl2, increased the expression of Cytochrome-C in the cytoplasme, and then improved the expression of Caspase-3. However there was no significant effect on the expression of Bax, Caspase-12, Fas, FasL and Caspase-8. The results indicate that the decreased expression of Annexin A7 could inhibit the proliferation, and increase the apoptosis of Hca-P cells by affecting the expression of the apoptosis associated proteins by the mitochondrial pathway.