Ampelopsis Regulates Invasive Activity and Invasion Gene Expression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma HepG2 Cell Line Through Dermcidin Protein

Objective To investigate the regulatory effect of ampelopsin (AMP) on invasion activity and invasion gene expression of hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line and its molecular mechanism.

Methods Hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line were cultured and treated with different doses of AMP (20, 40, 60, 80 μmol/L), and transfected with Dermcidin siRNA. Then the cell migration ability and invasive ability, the mRNA expression of Dermcidin and invasive genes were determined.

Results After different doses of AMP treatment, the number of migration and invadsion cells and the mRNA levels of Dermcidin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)2, MMP9 and MMP10 were lower than those in the control group; the greater the AMP dose was, the lower the number of cell migration, the number of invasion and the mRNA levels of Dermcidin, MMP2, MMP9, MMP10 were; the number of migration and invasion cells and the mRNA levels of MMP2, MMP9, MMP10 in HepG2 cells treated with 80μmol/L AMP combined with dermcidin gene siRNA transfection were significantly increased.

Conclusion AMP inhibits the invasive activity and decreases the invasive genes expression in HepG2 cell line by down-regulating the expression of Dermcidin protein.