Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of synthetic small interfering RNA（siRNA）targeting β-Catenin on the biological characters of hepatic stellate cells（HSCs）in vitro． Methods Synthetic siRNA targeting β-Catenin was transfected into HSC-T6 cells by lipofectamine package． Negative siRNA transfection and no transfection were used as negative and blank control，respectively． After incubation with siRNA，total RNA and protein of HSC-T6 cells were extracted． The expression of β-Catenin gene and protein was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. The proliferation of HSC-T6 was determined using MTT assay． HSC-T6 proliferation and apoptosis were measured by flow cytometry． Content of collagen type Ⅰand Ⅲin the supernatants were determined by Western blotting． Results After HSC-T6 cells transfected with different concentrations of β-Catenin SiRNA，the level of β-Catenin mRNA decreased significantly as compared to the negative and blank control；β-Catenin protein expression was inhibited by 56.43±2.88%（P<0.01），and Ⅰ and Ⅲ collagen expression were also inhibited by 46.58±3.46%（P<0.01）and 50.48±3.72%（P<0.01）；the cell proliferation was significantly inhibited（P<0.01），while cell apoptosis rate was significantly higher than in the negative control（P<0.05）． Conclusion Inhibition of β-Catenin by siRNA may have a potential effect on prevention and treatment of hepatic fibrosis by inhibiting proliferation of and promoting apoptosis of stellate cells．

Key words: Hepatic stellate cells, Small interfering RNA, β-Catenin, Proliferation, Apoptosis