• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.993-1001
• /
• 2016

Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients are at increased risk of many forms of malignancies, especially of the pancreas, colon and hepatocellular cancer. Unfortunately, little is known of the possible interaction between antidiabetic drugs and anticancer agents. The present study investigates the influence of metformin (MET) and sitagliptin (SITA) on the in vitro anticancer activity of the microtubule depolymerization inhibitor agent epothilone A (EpoA). Hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line (HepG2) viability and apoptosis were determined by the MTT test and by double staining with PO-PRO-1 and 7-aminoactinomycin D, respectively, after treatment with EpoA, metformin or sitagliptin. The levels of nuclear factor NF-${\kappa}B$ and p53 were evaluated in the presence and absence of inhibitors. While EpoA and MET inhibited HepG2 cell proliferation, SITA did not. EpoA and SITA induced higher p53 levels than MET. All tested drugs increased the level of NF-${\kappa}B$. Only MET enhanced the proapoptotic effect of EpoA. The EpoA+MET combination evoked the highest cytotoxic effect on HepG2 cells and led to apoptosis independent of p53, decreasing the level of NF-${\kappa}B$. These findings support the link between NF-${\kappa}B$ and p53 in the modulation of apoptotic effects in HepG2 cells treated by EpoA. Our studies indicate that the combination of EpoA and MET applied in subtoxic doses has a stronger cytotoxic effect on liver cancer cells than each of the compounds alone. The therapeutic advantages of the combination of EpoA with MET may be valuable in the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) and liver cancer.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.149-165
• /
• 2006

Objectives: This study was done to evaluate the effects of Saengkankunbi-tang on cell-viability, proliferation, cell-cycle, apoptosis and DNA replication on HepG2 cell and to find out by which molecular-biological mechanism by which Saengkankunbi-tang operates. Methods : The MTT assay, cell counting assay, [3H]-thymidine incorporation assay, flow cytometric analysis, tryphan blue exclusion assay, western blot analysis, quantative RT-PCR were taken. Results : Saengkankunbi-tang had no effect on proliferation, cell-cycle and DNA replications of HepG2 cells, while it improved cell viability and reduced apoptosis, and it activated Akt and NFKB. But, it did not produce an effect on cell viability and apoptosis when P13K/Akt pathway was blocked by LY294002 nor when $NF{\kapa}B$ activation was blocked by DN-$I{\kapa}B$. Conclusion : These results suggests that Saengkankunbi-tang improves cell viability and reduces apoptosis of HepG2 cells, by activating $NF{\kapa}B$ through PI3K/Akt pathway.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.35-48
• /
• 1993

The in vitro predictive tests in cancer chemotherapy of cancer cell lines to anticancer drugs were determined using novel dye exclusion assay [NDEA], [3H] thymidine incorporation, and clonogenic assay [CA>. Antitumor effect of Bleomycin, Cis-platin, Vinblastine, Methotrexate to HEp-2, B16 cell lines using rapid assays was compared with [CA> in this study. In dye exclusion assay of B l6 cell line, cancer cells were sensitive to Bleomycin at all concentrations, to Vinblastine at the level of peak plasma concentration [PPC], ${\times}1/10$ [PPC](P<0.05). And Bleomycin revealed relatively good cytotoxicity than that of CDDP and vinblastine at ${\times}10$[PPC], (P<0.05). HEp-2 cells were resistive to methotrexate at the level of ${\times}100$[PPC] (P<0.05) In [3H] thymidine incorporation assay, B 16 cells were sensitive to Bleomycin, CDDP, Vinblastine at the level of [PPC], ${\times}10$ [PPC](P<0.01). Dose-dependent drugs of bleomycin, CDDP were more sensitive than Vinblastine at high concentration (P<0.05). In clonogenic assay, HEp-2 cell line was sensitive to three drugs of all concentrations except ${\times}10$ [PPC] of CDDP. B 16 cell line was sensitive to all drugs(P<0,01). In comparison of chemosensitivity tests among three assays, the results were correlated(${\gamma}=0.99$, P<0.05).

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.324-332
• /
• 2003

The objective of this study was to examine if transient transfection of CAR can transactivate CYP2B1 PBRU reporter gene in COS cells in which the endogenous CYP2B1 gene is not induced by PB. In non-transfeced cells of both Hep G2 and COS, the endogeneous expression of CAR was not detected by antibody against CAR. When cultured cells were transfected with CAR expression plasmid, mCAR1-GFP, both cell types expressed high levels of CAR protein and could allow to examine the effect of CAR in PBRU transactivation. Both cell types expressed endogenous RXR and transfection of RXR expression plasmid dramatically increased its protein expression. Whereas CAR transactivated PBRU2C1Luciferase about 12 fold as compared to 2C1Luciferase in Hep G2 cells, it did not stimulate the luciferase activity of the PBRU reporter gene in COS cells. These results indicate that Hep G2 cells can respond to CAR differently from COS cells, and suggest that factors other than CAR and RXR may be required in inducing PBRU activation and the expression of these factors may be different between liver and kidney.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.936-940
• /
• 2004

Doenjang (Korean soy paste) is one of the popular soybean based fermented foods in Korea. This study investigated the growth and DNA synthesis inhibitory effect of doenjang methanol extracts on AGS human gastric adenocarcinoma cells, Hep 3B human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and HT-29 human colon cancer cells. In order to determine an anticancer effect of doenjang methanol extracts, other soybean fermented foods and original materials were compared. The treatment of doenjang methanol extracts (200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL) to the AGS, Hep 3B and HT-29 cancer cells inhibited the growth of cancer cells by 80%, 77% and 86%, respectively. Compared to other soybean fermented foods and original materials, doenjang methanol extracts showed the highest growth inhibitory effect on different cancer cells. In addition, doenjang methanol extracts (200 $\mu\textrm{g}$/mL) significantly inhibited DNA synthesis of AGS and Hep 3B cancer cells by 76% and 59%, respectively. These results suggested that this anticancer effect of doenjang may be due to specific active compounds, which will be newly produced during soybean fermented process and not contained in soybean.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.202-210
• /
• 2017

The nonstructural protein 5A (NS5A) encoded by the human hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA genome is a multifunctional phosphoprotein. To analyse the influence of NS5A on apoptosis, we established an Hep-NS5A cell line (HepG2 cells that stably express NS5A) and induced apoptosis using tumour necrosis factor $(TNF)-{\alpha}$. We utilised the MTT assay to detect cell viability, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and Western blot to analyse gene and protein expression, and a luciferase reporter gene experiment to investigate the targeted regulatory relationship. Chromatin immunoprecipitation was used to identify the combination of $NF-{\kappa}B$ and miR-503. We found that overexpression of NS5A inhibited $TNF-{\alpha}$-induced hepatocellular apoptosis via regulating miR-503 expression. The cell viability of the $TNF-{\alpha}$ induced Hep-mock cells was significantly less than the viability of the $TNF-{\alpha}$ induced Hep-NS5A cells, which demonstrates that NS5A inhibited $TNF-{\alpha}$-induced HepG2 cell apoptosis. Under $TNF-{\alpha}$ treatment, miR-503 expression was decreased and cell viability and B-cell lymphoma 2 (bcl-2) expression were increased in the Hep-NS5A cells. Moreover, the luciferase reporter gene experiment verified that bcl-2 was a direct target of miR-503, NS5A inhibited $TNF{\alpha}$-induced $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation and $NF-{\kappa}B$ regulated miR-503 transcription by combining with the miR-503 promoter. After the Hep-NS5A cells were transfected with miR-503 mimics, the data indicated that the mimics could reverse $TNF-{\alpha}$-induced cell apoptosis and blc-2 expression. Collectively, our findings suggest a possible molecular mechanism that may contribute to HCV treatment in which NS5A inhibits $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation to decrease miR-503 expression and increase bcl-2 expression, which leads to a decrease in hepatocellular apoptosis.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.413-417
• /
• 2015

Recently, we isolated HY253, a novel decahydrofluorene analog with a molecular structure of 7,8a-divinyl-2,4a,4b,5,6,7,8,8a,9,9a-decahydro-1H-fluorene-2,4a,4b,9a-tetraol from the roots of Aralia continentalis, which is known as Dokwhal (獨活), a traditional medicinal herb. Moreover, we previously reported its cytotoxic activity on cancer cell proliferation in human lung cancer A549 and cervical cancer HeLa cells. The current study aimed to evaluate its detailed molecular mechanisms in cell cycle arrest and apoptotic induction in human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells. Flow cytometric analysis of HepG2 cells treated with $60{\mu}M$ HY253 revealed appreciable cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase via inhibition of Rb phosphorylation and down-regulation of cyclin D1. Furthermore, using western blots, we found that up-regulation of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors, such as p21^CIP1 and p27^KIP1, was associated with this G₁ phase arrest. Moreover, TUNEL assay and immunoblottings revealed apoptotic induction in HepG2 cells treated with $60{\mu}M$ HY253 for 24 h, which is associated with cytochrome c release from mitochondria, via down-regulation of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein, which in turn resulted in activation of caspase-9 and -3, and proteolytic cleavage of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP). Accordingly, we suggest that HY253 may be a potent chemotherapeutic hit compound for treating human liver cancer cells via up-regulation and activation of the p53 gene.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.26 no.1 s.61
• /
• pp.46-58
• /
• 2005

Objective : This study on Sipimikwanjung-tang was undertaken to evaluate its antioxidant capacities and antiperoxidation activities in rat liver tissues. Sipimikwanjung-tang which has been one of the prescriptions in sasang constitutional medicine is usually applied for the therapy of various liver diseases. It is elucidated that Sipimikwanjung-tang has antioxidants on liver tissue of rat and the cytotoxic effects on human hepatoblastoma Hep G2 cells. Methods: Sipimikwanjung-tang extract in antioxidant effects of Hep G2 cells is evaluated by MTT assay, DAPI staining, DNA fragmentation assays and FACS can analysis. Results: Sipimikwanjung-tang induced apoptosis in Hep G2 cells, and induced G1 and G2M arrest of the cell cycle as well as a significant increase in PARP and caspase-3 activity. It induced an increase in $H_2O_2$ generation and the subsequent $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation and also induced cell apoptosis through the caspase-3-dependent pathways in the low concentration of Sipimikwanjung-tang extracts. However, the high dose of Sipimikwanjung-tang extract in Hep G2 cells inhibited $TGF-{\beta}l-induced$ apoptosis via increase in cellular $H_2O_2$, formation and $NF-{\kappa}B$ activation in human hepatoblastoma Hep G2 cells. Conclusion: From this study, the possibility that Sipimikwanjung-tang extracts apply to antioxidant and apoptotic treatment of disease is revealed.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
• /
• v.38 no.2 s.149
• /
• pp.176-180
• /
• 2007

Five liglans, sauchinone (1), di-0-methyltetrahydrofuriguaiacin B (2), manassantin A (3), manassantin B (4) and saucerneol B (5), have been isolated from the MeOH extract of Saururus chinesis roots. The evaluation for protective effect of compounds 1-5 against tacrine-induced cytotoxicity in human liver-derived Hep G2 cells was conducted. Compounds 1,2, and 5 showed significant protective effects with the EC$_{50}$ values of74.2${\pm}$0.9, 111.3${\pm}$0.8,64.3${\pm}$0.8 ${\mu}$M, respectively. Silybin, one of the well-known hepatoprotective agents, used as a positive control, and also showed protective effect with an EC$_{50}$ value of 86.2${\pm}$0.5 ${\mu}$M.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
• /
• v.27 no.9
• /
• pp.910-923
• /
• 1994

The effects of individual fatty acids, differing in their degree of unsaturation(18:0, 18:1, 18:2 and 18:3) on the biosynthesis and secretion and lipids were investigated in Hep-G2 cells. Synthesis of apolipoprotein was measured by the incorporation of 3H-leucine into apolipoprotein(d<1.21g/ml) and synthesis of lipids was measured by the incorporation of 3H-glycerol and 14C-acetate into various lipid classes. Inclusion of 1.0mM of each fatty acids into the culture medium significantly increased the synthesis of total apolipoprotein and Apo B(p<0.05). However, addition of fatty acid did not affect the synthesis of cellular and medium protein. Among different fatty acids tested, oleic acid had the greatest effect on Apo B synthesis. While stearic, linoleic and linolenic acid, all had similar effects. The secretion of triglyceride into the medium markedly increased in all fatty acid groups being 5-6 times over the albumin control. The triglyceride secretion was the highest int he oleic acid group. The secretion of phospholipid and cholesterol also increased with triglyceride output. A positive relationship existed between the output of lipoprotein-triglyceride and Apo B. Since the synthesis of Apo B was significantly increased when various fatty acids were included into the culture medium, part of the apparently stimulated synthesis of the apolipoprotein may be in response to the increased formation and secretion of lipoprotein lipids.