Knocking down Wnt9a mRNA levels increases cellular proliferation.

Wnts are secreted lipid-modified signaling proteins. Activation of Wnt signalling in many tissues has also been associated with cancer. In many eukaryotes, expression of nuclear-encoded mRNA can be strongly inhibited by the presence of a small double-stranded RNA corresponding to exon sequences in the mRNA. In this study we used pAVU6+27 vectors, which have SalI and XbaI clone sites, to construct the siRNA expression vectors for human Wnt9a. Two kinds of small interfering RNA inserts were designed, synthesized and visually tested for efficacy by in situ hybridization, the results demonstrated that in the cells, transfected with U6+27 cassettes with anti-Wnt9a hairpin siRNA inserts, dramatically reduced Wnt9a signals were observed as compared to the untransfected cells. The results of flow cytometry analysis showed that the cell proliferation was promoted after lowering expression of the human Wnt9a in MCF-7 cells by RNAi, but was inhibited after over-expression of human Wnt9a. These results suggests the expression level of human Wnt9a in MCF-7 that breast cancer may play a role in adjusting the rate of cellular proliferation.