Abstract:
Objective: To investigate the effects of astragaloside Ⅳ (AS-Ⅳ) on the proliferation,migration,invasion,and apoptosis of human tongue squamous cell carcinoma CAL-27 cells and its mechanism.
Methods: The CAL-27 cells were cultured
in vitro.The cells were treated with different concentrations of AS-Ⅳ (0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160 μmol/L) for 24,48,72 hours,and cell proliferation was detected by CCK-8 method.After treatment with 0,20,40,and 80 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ for 24 hours,cell migration and invasion abilities of CAL-27 cells were evaluated by Transwell assay,and apoptosis was analyzed by flow cytometry.The CAL-27 cells were divided into the control group,transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) group (10 ng/mL TGF-β1), and combination group (40 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ+10 ng/mL TGF-β1),and the cell migration and invasion abilities of each group were detected by Transwell assay,the protein expression levels of transforming growth factor-β receptor Ⅱ (TGF-β RⅡ) and Smad4 were analyzed by Western blotting.
Results: The results of CCK-8 method showed that compared with the 0 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group,the optical density values of 20,40,and 80 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ treatment for 24,48,and 72 hours were reduced (
P<0.05 to
P<0.01).The results of flow cytometry indicated that compared with the 0 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group,20,40,and 80 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ treatment for 24 hours could significantly induce apoptosis in CAL-27 cells (
P<0.01);compared with the 20 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group and 40 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group,the apoptosis rate in the 80 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group was significantly increased (
P<0.01).The results of Transwell assay found that compared with the 0 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ group,20,40,and 80 μmol/L AS-Ⅳ could significantly inhibit the migration and invasion abilities of CAL-27 cells (
P<0.01),and the number of migrating and invading cells gradually decreased with the increase of AS-Ⅳ concentration (
P<0.01);the number of migrating and invading cells in the transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) group was significantly higher than that in the control group (
P<0.01),the number of migrating and invading cells in the combination group was higher than that in the control group (
P<0.05 and
P<0.01),but lower than that in the TGF-β1 group (
P<0.05).The results of Western blotting implied that the levels of TGF-β RⅡ and Smad4 proteins in the TGF-β1 group and combination group were significantly higher than those in the control group (
P<0.01),while the levels of TGF-β RⅡ and Smad4 proteins in the combination group were significantly lower than those in the TGF-β1 group (
P<0.01).
Conclusions: AS-Ⅳ can induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation,migration,and invasion of tongue squamous cell carcinoma CAL-27 cells.AS-Ⅳ may regulate the migration and invasion abilities of CAL-27 cells by blocking the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway mediated by TGF-β1.