ABSTRACT
It is reported that dihydroartemisinin could reduce the expression of phosphorylated adhesion kinase and matrix metalloproteinase-2, inhibit the growth, migration and invasion of ovarian cancer cells, promote the formation of Treg cells through TGF-beta/Smad signaling pathway, and play an immunosuppressive role; dihydroartemisinin could also inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells by inhibiting the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) receptor KDR. However, there are few studies on dihydroartemisinin in hepatocellular carcinoma cells. In order to preliminarily explore the effect of dihydroartemisinin on invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells, CCK-8 method and crystal violet staining were used to detect the effect of dihydroartemisinin on the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cell 7402 and highly metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma cell MHCC97 H. The effects of dihydroartemisinin on the invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma cell 7402 and highly metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma cell MHCC97 H were studied by using cell wound healing and Transwell. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression of epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) and its downstream signaling pathway in cells treated with dihydroartemisinin for 48 hours. The results showed that dihydroartemisinin could inhibit the growth of hepatocellular carcinoma cell 7402 and highly metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma cell MHCC97 H at 25 μmol·L~(-1). As compared with the control group, the number of cell clones was significantly reduced, and the ability of cell migration and invasion was weakened. Western blot results showed that as compared with the control group, dihydroartemisinin group could down-regulate the protein expression of EGFR and its downstream signaling pathways p-AKT, p-ERK, N-cadherin, Snail and Slug, and up-regulate the expression of E-cadherin protein, thus affecting the migration, invasion and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells 7402 and MHCC97 H.