Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of targeted CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-β(C/EBP-β)gene silencing on proliferation,apoptosis,and migration of hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells.Methods The DNA sequences of C/EBP-β,enhanced green fluorescent protein(eGFP),and small hairpin RNA(shRNA)were designed with bioinformatics method and synthesized;the synthesized DNA were then transfected into plasmid pLKO.1-TRC and packaged with lentivirus which was used to infect liver SMMC-7721 cells.Puromycin was employed to screen and culture stable cell lines interferenced.Cell counting kit-8(CCK-8 kit)and transwell cell migration assay were adopted to detect the proliferation and migration of SMMC-7721 cells;Western blot was used to determine the changes of apoptosis-related proteins in SMMC-7721 cells.Results The proliferation rate of SMMC-7721 liver tumor cells with C/EBP-β gene silencing was significantly increased,with a relative proliferation ratio of 136.8%(P<0.05),and the migration of the SMMC-7721 cells was significantly enhanced,with a migration inhibitive rate of -292.3%(P<0.05).In addition,the expressions of cell cycle protein cyclin B1 and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 increased significantly(both P<0.05)and the expression of Bax decreased significantly(P<0.05)in the intervened SMMC-7721 cells.Conclusion The silence of C/EBP-β gene could promote cell proliferation and migration and inhibit cell apoptosis in SMMC-7721hepatocellular carcinoma cells.