Effect of neferine on proliferation and invasion of human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 and Bel-7402 / 中国药理学通报

ABSTRACT

Aim To investigate the effect of neferine on proliferation and invasion of human hepatocellular car-cinoma. Methods HepG2 and Bel-7402 cells were cultured in vitro with different concentrations of nefer-ine, then cell proliferation was observed by CCK-8 as-say; cell invasion was observed by transwell invasion assay; the protein expression of RhoA, RhoC and ROCK was detected by Western blot. Results CCK-8 results showed that neferine could significantly inhibit cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner compared with the control group. Transwell invasion assay showed that cell invasion was significantly decreased with neferine 3 μmol · L-1 . Western blot results showed that RhoA, RhoC and ROCK protein expres-sion was decreased when neferine was co-incubated with hepatocellular carcinoma cells. Conclusion Nef-erine can inhibit proliferation and invasion of HepG2 and Bel-7402 cells, which is mediated mainly by the inhibition of RhoA, RhoC and ROCK protein expres-sion.