Search

The function and mechanism underlying the suppression of human osteosarcoma cells by ginsenoside-Rg5 (Rg5) was investigated in the present study. MG-63, HOS, and U2OS cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay after Rg5 treatment for 24 h. Rg5 inhibited human osteosarcoma cell proliferation effectively in a dose-dependent manner. The range of effective inhibitory concentrations was 160-1280 nM. Annexin V-FITC and PI double-staining assay revealed that Rg5 induced human osteosarcoma cell apoptosis. Western blotting, qRT-PCR, and FACS experiments revealed that Rg5 inhibited human osteosarcoma cells via caspase-3 activity which was related to the LC3-mediated autophagy pathway. Rg5 decreased the phosphorylation of PI3K, Akt, and mTORC1 activation. In contrast, LC3-mediated autophagy and caspase-3 activity increased significantly. A PI3K/AKT stimulator, IGF-1, reversed Rg5-induced cell autophagy and apoptosis in MG-63 cells. Collectively, the current study demonstrated that Rg5 induced human osteosarcoma cell apoptosis through the LC3-mediated autophagy pathway. Under physiological conditions, activation of PI3K/AKT/mTORC1 inhibits LC3 activity and caspase-3-related cell apoptosis. However, Rg5 activated LC3 activity by inhibiting the activation of PI3K/AKT/mTORC1. The present study indicated that Rg5 could be a promising candidate as a chemotherapeutic agent against human osteosarcoma.

Introduction Recent animal studies showed that isoflurane exposure may lead to the disturbance of hippocampal neurogenesis and later cognitive impairment. However, much less is known about the effect of isoflurane exposure on the neurons generated form tertiary dentate matrix, even though a great increase of granule cell population during the infantile period is principally derived from this area. Methods To label the new cells originated from the tertiary dentate matrix, the mice were injected with BrdU on postnatal day 6 (P6). Then, the mice were exposed to isoflurane for 4 hr at 1, 8, 21, and 42 days after BrdU injection, and the brains were collected 24 hr later. The loss of newly generated cells/neurons with different developmental stage was assessed by BrdU, BrdU + DCX, BrdU + NeuN, or BrdU + Prox‐1 staining, respectively. Results We found that the isoflurane exposure significantly decreased the numbers of nascent cells (1 day old) and mature neurons (42 days old), but had no effect on the immature (8 days old) and early mature neurons (8 and 21 days old, respectively). Conclusion The results suggested isoflurane exposure exerts the neurotoxic effects on the tertiary dentate matrix‐originated cells with an age‐defined pattern in mice, which partly explain the cognitive impairment resulting from isoflurane exposure to the young brain., Isoflurane exposure exerts neurotoxic effects on the tertiary dentate matrix‐originated cells with an age‐defined pattern in mice. The isoflurane significantly decreased the numbers of nascent cells and mature neurons driven from the tertiary dentate matrix.

// Xi Pan 1, 2, 3 , Binyuan Jiang 1, 2 , Jianhao Liu 4 , Juan Ding 3 , Yuehui Li 1, 2 , Ruili Sun 1, 2 , Li Peng 1, 2 , Changfei Qin 1, 2 , Shujuan Fang 1, 2 and Guancheng Li 1, 2 1 The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis of The Chinese Ministry of Health and The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of The Chinese Ministry of Education, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410008, China 2 Cancer Research Institute, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China 3 Xiangya Third Hospital, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China 4 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Central South University, Changsha 410078, China Correspondence to: Guancheng Li, email: ligc61@csu.edu.cn Keywords: stanniocalin-1 (STC1), cell apoptosis, cervical cancer, NF-κB, phospho-P65 (Ser536) Received: November 22, 2016 Accepted: March 11, 2017 Published: May 05, 2017 ABSTRACT Stanniocalin-1 (STC1) is a secreted glycoprotein hormone and involved in various types of human malignancies. Our previous studies revealed that STC1 inhibited cell proliferation and invasion of cervical cancer cells through NF-κB P65 activation, but the mechanism is poorly understood. In our studies, we found overexpression of STC1 promoted cell apoptosis while silencing of STC1 promoted cell growth of cervical cancer. Phospho-protein profiling and Western blotting results showed the expression of NF-κB related phosphorylation sites including NF-κB P65 (Ser536), IκBα, IKKβ, PI3K, and AKT was altered in STC1-overexpressed cervical cancer cells. Moreover, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, AKT-shRNA and IκBα-shRNA could decrease the protein content of phospho-P65 (Ser536), phospho-IκBα, phospho-AKT and phospho-IKKβ while increasing the level of P65 compared to STC1 overexpression groups in cervical cancer cells. Also, PI3K inhibitor LY294002, AKT-shRNA and IκBα-shRNA elevated the percentage of apoptosis and suppressed the G1/S transition in those cells. Additionally, STC1 level was decreased in cervical cancer, especial in stage II and III. The results of immunohistochemistry for the cervical cancer microarray showed that a lower level of STC1, phospho-PI3K and P65 protein expression in tumor tissues than that in normal tissues, and a higher level of phospho-P65 protein expression in tumor tissues, which is consistent with the results of the Western blotting. These data demonstrated that STC1 can promote cell apoptosis via NF-κB phospho-P65 (Ser536) by PI3K/AKT, IκBα and IKK signaling in cervical cancer cells. Our results offer the first mechanism that explains the link between STC1 and cell apoptosis in cervical cancer.

Inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress are two critical mediators in inflammation-associated cancer. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is one of the most critical tumor-promoting cytokines in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In our recent study, we confirmed that NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), an important source of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in NSCLC cells, promotes malignant progression of NSCLC. However, whether the crosstalk of NOX4 and IL-6 signalings exists in NSCLC remains undentified. In this study, we show that NOX4 expression is positively correlated with IL-6 expression in NSCLC tissues. Exogenous IL-6 treatment significantly enhances NOX4/ROS/Akt signaling in NSCLC cells. NOX4 also enhances IL-6 production and activates IL-6/STAT3 signaling in NSCLC cells. Specifically, NOX4 is confirmed to functionally interplay with IL-6 to promote NSCLC cell proliferation and survival. The in vivo results were similar to those obtained in vitro. These data indicate a novel NOX4-dependent link among IL-6 in the NSCLC microenvironment, oxidative stress in NSCLC cells and autocrined IL-6 in NSCLC cells. NOX4/Akt and IL-6/STAT3 signalings can reciprocally and positively regulate each other, leading to enhanced NSCLC cell proliferation and survival. Therefore, NOX4 may serve as a promising target against NSCLC alone with IL-6 signaling.

A series of new matrinic acid derivatives 5a–e was synthesized. The chemical structures of the synthesized compounds were confirmed by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy. The anti-tumor activities were also investigated in vitro by evaluating the effect of synthesized compounds on the proliferation of A375, A549, HeLa, and HepG2 cells. Compound 5e was found to be the most potent against A375 and HeLa cells, with IC50 values of 37 and 75.5 μg/mL, respectively. Compounds 5b, 5c, 5g, and 5h also exhibited antiproliferative activities against A549 cells, with IC50 values within the 36.2–47 μg/mL range. For HepG2 cells, 5e and 5i, with IC50 values of 78.9 and 61 μg/mL, respectively, showed higher antiproliferative activity than taxol.

Differentiation of embryoid bodies (EBs) into particular cell lineages has been extensively studied. There is an increasing interest in the effect of soft hydrogel scaffolds on the behavior of EBs, such as the initial adhesion, dynamic morphology change, and differentiation. In this study, without adding any other bioactive factors in the serum-containing medium, dynamic behaviors of mouse EBs loaded on the surface of hydrogels with different surface charge and chemical structures are investigated. EBs adhered quickly to negatively charged poly(sodium p-styrene sulfonate) (PNaSS) hydrogels, which facilitates EBs spreading, migration, and differentiation into three germ layers with high efficiency of cardiomyocytes differentiation, similar to that on gelatin coated polystyrene (PS) culture plate. While on neutral poly(acrylamide) (PAAm) hydrogels, EBs maintained the initial spherical morphology with high expression of pluripotency-related markers in the short culture periods, and then showed the significantly greater levels of selected endoderm markers after long-time culture. EBs cultured on negatively charged poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl-propane sulfonic acid sodium salt) (PNaAMPS) gels demonstrated the analogous behaviors with that of neutral PAAm gels at early differentiation phase (day 4+1). Then, their adhesion, spreading and differentiation were quite similar to that on negatively charged PNaSS gels. The correlation between surface properties of hydrogels and EBs differentiation was discussed.

International audience; The natural tetrapeptide acetyl-N-Ser-Asp-Lys-Pro (AcSDKP) is generated from the N-terminus of thymosin-β4 through enzymatic cleavage by prolyl oligopeptidase (POP). AcSDKP regulation of proliferation of different cells is implicated in hematopoiesis and angiogenesis. This tetrapeptide present in almost all cells was recently detected at elevated concentrations in neoplastic diseases. However, previously reported in vitro and in vivo studies indicate that AcSDKP does not contribute to the pathogenesis of cancers. Here we show that exogenous AcSDKP exerts no effect on the proliferation of actively dividing malignant cells. Using S17092, a specific POP inhibitor (POPi), to suppress the biosynthesis of AcSDKP in U87-MG glioblastoma cells characterized by high intracellular levels of this peptide, we found that all tested doses of POPi resulted in an equally effective depletion of AcSDKP, which was not correlated with the dose-dependent decreases in the proliferation rate of treated cells. Interestingly, addition of exogenous AcSDKP markedly reversed the reduction in the proliferation of U87-MG cells treated with the highest dose of POPi, and this effect was associated with activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway. However, extracellular-regulated protein kinase (ERK) activation was unaltered by S17092 and AcSDKP co-treatment. Knockdown of individual PI3K catalytic subunits revealed that p110α and p110β contributed differently to AcSDKP regulation of U87-MG cell proliferation. Disruption of p110α expression by small interfering RNA (siRNA) abrogated AcSDKP-stimulated Akt phosphorylation, whereas knockdown of p110β expression exhibited no such effect. Our findings indicate for the first time that the PI3KCA/Akt pathway mediates AcSDKP regulation of cell proliferation and suggest a role for this ubiquitous intracellular peptide in cell survival.

Paclitaxel is a drug within one of the most promising classes of anticancer agents. Unfortunately, clinical success of this drug has been limited by the insurgence of cellular resistance. To address this, Paclitaxel resistance was modeled in an in vitro system using estrogen treated prostate cancer cells. This study demonstrates that emerging resistance to clinically relevant doses of Paclitaxel is associated with 17-β-estradiol (E2) treatment in PC-3 cells, but not in LNCaP cells. We found that small interfering RNA mediated knockdown of ERα lead to a decrease in E2 induced Paclitaxel resistance in androgen-independent cells. We also showed that ERα mediated the effects of estrogen, thereby suppressing androgen-independent cell proliferation and mediating Paclitaxel resistance. Furthermore, E2 promoted Prohibitin (PHB) mitochondrial-nucleus translocation via directly mediation of ERα, leading to an inhibition of cellular proliferation by PHB. Additionally, restoration of Paclitaxel sensitivity by ERα knockdown could be overcome by PHB overexpression and, conversely, PHB knockdown decreased E2 induced Paclitaxel resistance. These findings demonstrate that PHB lies downstream of ERα and mediates estrogen-dependent Paclitaxel resistance signaling cascades.