RNA interference (RNAi) is the mechanism of sequence-specific, post-transcriptional gene silencing initiated by short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) homologous to the gene being suppressed. siRNAs, which mediate sequence-specific mRNA degradation, are duplexes of about 21-23 nucleotides with 3'-overhangs synthesized in vitro or expressed by DNA-based vector. However, these systems rely on transfection for delivery and cannot generate long-term gene silencing in vivo. This obstacle may be circumvented by recently developed retrovirus- and lentivirus-delivered RNAi. Here, we describe a retroviral system for delivery of siRNA into cells, which can substantially down-regulate the expression of human p53 gene in human HepG2 cells. What's more, the G1 and S phases of cell cycle change dramatically in p53-down-regulated cells. These results indicate that retrovirus vector-delivered RNAi may be used in functional genomics and in gene therapy. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.