Malignant gliomas have a high proliferation ability and high tendency to invade diffusely into surrounding healthy brain tissues, thereby precluding their successful surgical removal. Intersectin1 (also called ITSN1) as a molecular linker in the central nervous system is well known as an important regulator of endocytosis and exocytosis. ITSN1 has two isoforms: ITSN1-l and ITSN1-s. In this study, we show that siRNA-mediated down regulation of ITSN1-s induced glioma cells apoptosis. In addition, we demonstrate the possible mechanisms by which ITSN1-s functions in glioma cells apoptosis. Our data demonstrate that several key proteins, including FAK, Akt, Bcl-2, BAD which are critical for cells apoptosis were probably involved in ITSN1-s signaling pathways. Our results indicate that ITSN1-s is an effecter in regulation of gliomas cells apoptosis, and identify that ITSN1-s may be a new potentially anti-apoptosis target for therapeutic of gliomas.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.