AIM:To investigate in vitro effects and mechanisms of silibinin on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell growth. METHODS:Human HCC cell lines were treated with different doses of silibinin. The effects of silibinin on HCC cell growth and proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle progression, histone acetylation, and other related signal transductions were systematically examined. RESULTS:We demonstrated that silibinin significantly reduced the growth of HuH7, HepG2, Hep3B, and PLC/PRF/5 human hepatoma cells. Silibinin-reduced HuH7 cell growth was associated with significantly upregulated p21/CDK4 and p27/CDK4 complexes, downregulated Rb-phosphorylation and E2F1/DP1 complex. Silibinin promoted apoptosis of HuH7 cells that was associated with down-regulated survivin and upregulated activated caspase-3 and -9. Silibinin's antiangiogenic effects were indicated by down-regulated metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) and CD34. We found that silibinin-reduced growth of HuH7 cells was associated with increased activity of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) and decreased p-Akt production, indicating the role of PTEN/ PI3K/Akt pathway in silibinin-mediated anti-HCC effects. We also demonstrated that silibinin increased acetylation of histone H3 and H4 (AC-H3 and AC-H4), indicating a possible role of altered histone acetylation in silibininreduced HCC cell proliferation. CONCLUSION:Our results defined silibinin's in vitro anti-HCC effects and possible mechanisms, and provided a rationale to further test silibinin for HCC chemoprevention.

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