OBJECTIVE To investigate the apoptosis-inducing effect of XIAP antisense oligonucleotides on glioblastoma cells in vitro.METHODS There were 4 groups in our experiment. Group A,as a cell control group, had normal cell culture and no treatment applied. Group B, as a blank control group, had normal cell culture and no liposome control of ASODN. Group C was N-ODN.Group D was the ASODN group. RT-PCR and West blot assay were conducted to detect the expression of XIAP in all A-172cell groups after treatment with XIAP antisense oligonucleotides (ASODN). MTT assay and flow-cytometry (FCM) detection were used to detect the ability of cell anchoring growth and apoptotic rates of all groups. The processing time was 72 h.RESULTS The expression of XIAP in the A-172 cells was greatly down-regulated, after treated with XIAP-ASODN. Among different concentrations of ASODN, the 300nM was the most optimal one. The down-regulation of XIAP obviously inhibited the succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity of the A-172 cells and the increased apoptotic rate of A-172 cells (87.45%) was significantly higher than that of the A-172 in the control groups. There was a statistically significant difference between the treatment and control groups (P < 0.01).CONCLUSION The XIAP-ASODN can effectively regulate the expression of the XIAP down, as a result, inhibit the growth of the glioblastoma cells (A-172) and obviously increase the apoptotic rate of the A-172 cells. The results of the study manifest an overt killing role of XIAP-ASODN to the glioblastoma cells.