Effect and mechanism of 6-gingerol on invasion and migration of HPV-positive and negative cervical cancer cells / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the inhibitory effect of 6-gingerol on the invasion and migration of human papilloma virus (HPV)-positive and HPV-negative cervical cancer cells, and explore the possible mechanism. Methods Human HPV-positive cervical cancer cells (HeLa) and HPV-negative cells (C33A) were cultured, and added with 6-gingerol at different concentration of 0, 5, 10, 20, 50 μmol/L, the untreated cells play as control, then cultured for 24 h. 10 μmol/L 6-gingerol was determined as the best concentration, then all the cells were treated with 10 μmol/L 6-gingerol for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h respectively. The cell proliferation was detected by MTS method, and cell scratch test was performed to detect the effect of 6-gingerol on cell migration ability. The effect of 6-gingerol on cellular invasion was detected by Transwell chamber. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of matrix metalloproteinase MMP-2, MMP-9, E-cadherin and N-cadherin. Results MTS assay showed that the activity of HeLa and C33A cells decreased with the increase of 6-gingerol concentration and action time, while the activity of HeLa cells decreased more significantly than that of C33A cells at different concentrations or time points. Transwell invasion chamber test showed that the HeLa cells treated with 6-gingerol for 24 h and 48 h, and C33A cells treated with 6-gingerol for 48 h, the cellular invasion ability decreased significantly. The scratch test revealed that the wound healing rate decreased significantly of HeLa cells 24 h and 48 h after 6-carbenol action and of C33A cells 48 h after 6-carbenol action. Western blotting results showed that, treating with 10 μmol/L of 6-gingerol for 24 h, the expressions of E-cadherin increased and of N-cadherin, MM P-2 and MMP-9 declined in HeLa cells with statistical differences (P0.05) compared to that of unprocessed group. Conclusions 6-gingerol can inhibit the proliferation of HPV-positive cervical cancer cells and cell invasion. The mechanism may be associated with the effect of 6-gingerol on influencing the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-related proteins.