Journal
TUMOR BIOLOGY
Volume 36, Issue 4, Pages 2957-2964Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1007/s13277-014-2926-5
Keywords
Hepatocellular carcinoma; Apoptosis; Bcl2; Metformin; Arsenic trioxide
Categories
Funding
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [81272368]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly malignant tumor that can evolve rapidly to acquire resistance to conventional chemotherapies. Arsenic trioxide (ATO) is a traditional Asian medicine, and a phase II study has shown that treatment with ATO alone was not effective against HCC. Bcl2 is an antiapoptotic protein that regulates chemotherapy in HCC. Metformin is reported to decrease Bcl2 expression, and the purpose of this study was to verify whether metformin could potentiate the anti-HCC efficacy of ATO in vitro. In the present study, we used metformin and ATO alone or in combination and then tested proliferation, apoptosis, and Bcl2 level of HCC cells. The results showed that metformin enhanced both the proliferation-inhibiting and apoptosis-inducing effects of ATO on HCC cell lines HepG2 and BEL7402. Furthermore, this activity proceeded via a mechanism involving metformin-induced downregulation of Bcl2. A combination of ATO and metformin is therefore a potentially promising approach for HCC therapy.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available