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Inhibition of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2

AIM: To investigate the effect of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway inhibitor wortmannin on cell proliferation, apoptosis and expression of pAkt, Skp2 and P27^kip1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2.

METHODS: After treatment with different concentrations of wortmannin (0, 10, 50, 100, 200 nmol/L) for different durations (3, 10, 24 h), proliferation of HepG2 cells was analyzed by MTT assay, cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry, expression of pAkt, Skp2 and P27^kip1 proteins was detected by Western blot, and the mRNA expression of Skp2 and P27^kip1 was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS: Wortmannin inhibited the proliferation of HepG2 cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The apoptosis rates of HepG2 cells significantly increased from 8.46% ± 1.17% to 28.03% ± 2.67% after treatment with wortmannin (P < 0.05). Wortmannin induced an increase in the percentage of cells in G₀/G₁ phase and a decrease in the percentage of cells in S phase cells (both P < 0.05). After treatment with wortmannin, the expression of pAkt and Skp2 proteins was down-regulated, while that of P27^kip1 protein was up-regulated (all P < 0.05). In addition, Skp2 mRNA expression in HepG2 cells was significantly down-regulated (P < 0.05), although the expression of P27^kip1 mRNA was not changed.

CONCLUSION: Wortmannin inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 possibly by regulating the expression of Skp2 and P27^kip1.