Objective      To determine the role of ezrin in the regulation of multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 (MRP2) by constructing ezrin knockdown HepG2 cell lines through stably transfected with Ezrin-shRNA plasmids.       Methods      Ezrin-shRNA plasmids targeting to silence the gene at different sites were used to transfect HepG2 cells. Then HepG2 cell lines stably transfected by Ezrin-shRNA plasmids were obtained by G418 selection. The knockdown efficiency was measured by real-time qPCR and Western blotting. The expression of membrane transport protein MRP2 was detected in both total membrane extraction and biotinylated cell surface proteins to explore the effect of ezrin knockdown.       Results      Real-time qPCR results revealed that the transfection of Ezrin-shRNA#3 plasmid reduced the ezrin expression

with an inhibitory rate of about 30% of control cells (P0.05). Western blotting indicated that ezrin knockdown resulted in the increased expression of MRP2

but no such increase was seen in the control cell though without significant difference (P0.05). Immunoprecipitation assay showed ezrin knockdown induced the expression of MRP2 protein increased in both total membrane extraction and biotinylated cell surface proteins (P0.05).        Conclusion        Ezrin knockdown induces MRP2 protein membrane expression by post-translational regulation in HepG2 cells.