Lentivirus-mediated Silencing of Rhomboid Domain Containing 1 Suppresses Tumor Growth and Induces Apoptosis in Hepatoma HepG2 Cells

Rhomboids were identified as the first intramembrane serine proteases about 10 years ago. Since then, thestudy of the rhomboid protease family has blossomed. Rhomboid domain containing 1 (RHBDD1), highlyexpressedin human testis, contains a rhomboid domain with unknown function. In the present study, we testedthe hypothesis that RHBDD1 was associated with proliferation and apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma usingrecombinant lentivirus-mediated silencing of RHBDD1 in HepG2 cells. Our results showed that down-regulationof RHBDD1 mRNA levels markedly suppressed proliferation and colony formation capacity of HepG2 humanhepatoma cancer cells in vitro, and induced cell cycle arrest. We also found that RHBDD1 silencing could obviouslytrigger HepG2 cell apoptosis. In summary, it was demonstrated that RHBDD1 might be a positive regulator forproliferative and apoptotic characteristics of hepatocellular carcinoma.