Suppress of Cell Proliferation and Survival by Nuclear Factor-kappa B Signaling Pathway Inhibition in Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma SMMC-7721 Cells

Objective To evaluate the effect of NF-κB inhibition on the proliferation of SMMC7721 cells and to find out whether it would be a potential therapeutic target for hepatocellular carcinoma.Methods Human hepatocellular carcinoma cells SMMC7721 were cultured in RPMI1640 medium and NF-κB activity was suppressed by SN50(36 μmol/L).Western blot were used to analysis the p65 subunite of NF-κB in the nucleus of SMMC7721 cells.Cell viability was assessed by MTT assay.Cell cycle progression and cell apoptosis were analyzed by flow cytometry.Results The p65 subunits of NF-κB were constitutively expressed in the nucleus of SMMC7721 cells but decreased significantly after SN50(36 μmol/L) treatment.MTT assay showed that the proliferation of SMMC7721 cells was significantly suppressed by SN50 in a time-dependent way(P0.05).The inhibition rate was 22.77%,33.33% and 38.89% for 24,48 and 72 hours respectively.The cell cycle distribution and apoptosis analyzed by flow cytometry showed that the percentage of SMMC7721 cells in G1 phase was increased(69.5% vs 56.5%,P0.05)and decreased in S phase(11.1% vs 28.6%,P0.05)with SN50 treatment.At the same time,SN50 induced 38.3% apoptosis compared with 23.2% in the controls(P0.05).Conclusion NF-κB functions in the cell proliferation and survival in human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells.Inhibition of NF-κB activity would induce cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in the G1 phase.It confers that targeting NF-κB signaling pathway would be a new choice for the therapy of HCC.