In vitro study on shRNA-mediated reduction of testis developmental related gene 1 expression and its effects on the proliferation, invasion and apoptosis of NTERA-2 cells

Abstract

Testis developmental related gene 1 (<i>TDRG1</i>) is a novel human testis-specific gene. <i>TDRG1</i> is differentially expressed in cancerous tissue compared with normal testicular tissue and demonstrates a unique expression pattern in normal testes; therefore, this gene may be involved in the occurrence and development of testicular germ cell tumors (TGCT). In the present study, the expression level of <i>TDRG1</i> was downregulated in human TGCT NTERA-2 cells by RNA interference (RNAi) in order to investigate the association between TDRG1 and TGCT. The TDRG1 mRNA and protein expression levels in NTERA-2 cells were significantly inhibited following transfection with specific RNAi plasmids. The ability to proliferate (inhibited by 15.4% at day 3 and 26.1% at day 5; P<0.001) and invade (reduced by 49.1%; P=0.01) <i>in vitro</i> was suppressed in cells in which the expression level of <i>TDRG1</i> was reduced, and a corresponding increase in the apoptotic potential was observed (the early apoptotic potential and total apoptotic potential were increased by 75%; P=0.019 and 54.8%; P=0.009, respectively). The results of the present study indicated that the biological behavior of NTERA-2 cells is associated with <i>TDRG1</i> expression levels, and that this gene may be a novel target candidate in the treatment of TGCT.