Abstract: Objective To study the effect of TGF-β1 gene transfection on proliferation and apoptosis of human cervical cancer cells in vitro. Methods Overexpression plasmid of TGF-β1 was established by gene transfection in C-33A cell line with well proliferation status. The expression of TGF-β1 mRNA and protein, Bcl-2 and Bax were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. Cell proliferation rate，migration rate and apoptosis were detected by MTT assay, Transwell assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Results The expression of TGF-β1 mRNA and protein in cervical cancer cells was lower than that of other cells (P<0.05). TGF-β1 could inhibit the expression of Bcl-2 (P<0.05) and promote the expression of Bax (P<0.05). The rate of proliferation and migration of overexpressed TGF-β1 cells was lower than that of other cells (P<0.05), but the rate of apoptosis was higher than that other cells (P<0.05), and the decrease and increase show time dependence. Conclusions Overexpression TGF-β1 can significantly inhibit the proliferation and promote apoptosis of cervical cancer cells.

Key words: TGF-β1, proliferation, migration, apoptosis, cervical cancer