Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common digestive malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality worldwide, however, the treatment of HCC and prognosis of patients are not optimistic, finding more effective treatments are imperative. Taraxacum officinale (L.) Weber ex F.H.Wigg is a perennial herb of compositae, and our study has demonstrated that Taraxacum officinale polysaccharide has certain anti-tumor effect on HCC cells. Taraxasterol (TS) is a natural product extracted from Taraxacum officinale with strong physiological, pharmacological and biological activities, but the effect of TS on HCC is yet to be determined. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the effect of dandelion sterol on HCC in vivo and in vitro. The results showed that TS significantly inhibited the proliferation, induced apoptosis and blocked cell cycle in HCC cell lines HepG2 and Huh7 cells in vitro. TS inhibited the tumor growth of H22 bearing mice and the expression of Ki67 in vivo. More importantly, TS regulated the immunity of H22 bearing mice by elevating the ratio of CD4+ T cells in spleen, and increasing the number of T cell infiltration in tumor tissue. Except immunomodulation, the mechanism of tumor growth inhibition may be related to the regulation of apoptosis related proteins and IL-6/STAT3 pathway. TS significantly inhibited the growth of HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. The study would provide a theoretical basis for the new application of TS and the adjuvant treatment of malignant tumor with traditional Chinese medicine.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third malignant tumor in the world. Many evidences have demonstrated that hyperthermia exerts a crucial role in cancer therapy. However, it remains elusive whether hyperthermia restrains HCC progression and the underlying molecular mechanism of hyperthermia on HCC is unknown. Here, we find that local hyperthermia has a strong anti-liver tumor effect in vivo and in vitro. Heat stimulus decreases the proliferation of liver cancer cells in vitro and suppresses the tumor growth in mice through inducing apoptosis. Furthermore, RNA-seq results have demonstrated that the Hippo signaling pathway plays a major role in heat therapy. Mechanistically, heat stimulation restrains the expression of YAP protein in the nucleus. Together, all our results have suggested that heating therapy inhibits the proliferation of HCC cells by regulating the Hippo signaling pathway, suggesting YAP is a potentially promising target for HCC therapy.