RESUMO
Objective Comparatively few studies are reported on the invasion and migration of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) TPC1 cells. This study was to investigate the effects of curcumin on the invasion and migration abilities of TPC1 cells and its possible action mechanisms.MethodsWe treated TPC1 single cell suspension with curcumin at the concentrations of 0 (DMSO solvent), 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 μmol/L. At 24 and 48 hours after exposure, we examined the inhibitory effect of curcumin on the cells by CCK8 assays, detected the migration and invasion abilities of the TPC1 cells by Transwell and wound healing assay, and determined the gene and protein expressions Glut1 and MT1MMP by RTPCR and Western blot, respectively.ResultsThere were statistically significant differences in the cell viability among different groups of the TPC1 cells (P<0.05) as well as in the cell migration ability at 24 hours between any two groups of the cells treated with curcumin at 0 μmol/L (\[0.842±0.096\] mm), 10 μmol/L (\[0.911±0.049\] mm), 20 μmol/L (\[0.926±0.107\] mm) and 40 μmol/L (\[1.076±0.093\] mm) (P<0.05) and at 48 hours (P<0.05). Statistically significant differences were also observed between any two of the 0, 10, 20 and 40 μmol/L groups in the number of migrated cells (196, 142, 57, and 17/100x visual field) (P<0.05) as well in the protein expression of Glut1 (0.786±0.112, 0.518±0.106, 0.359±0.121, and 0.266±0.087) (P<0.05) and the mRNA and protein expressions of MT1MMP (P<0.05).ConclusionCurcumin can inhibit the invasion and migration of thyroid papillary carcinoma TPC1 cells, which may be associated with the decreased expressions of Glut1 and MT1MMP.