The pharmacological actions of Ophiopogonin D include resistance to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, anti-aging effects, improvement in learning deficit and dysmnesia, anti-tumor, anti-radiation and anti-inflammatory effects, immunoregulation, and the relief of cough and hepatopulmonary pathological lesions. However, the efficacy of Ophiopogonin D on human laryngocarcinoma remains to be elucidated. The present study therefore investigated whether the anti-cancer effect of Ophiopogonin D inhibits cell proliferation and induces apoptosis of human laryngocarcinoma. In the present study, it was found that Ophiopogonin D inhibited cell proliferation, promoted cytotoxicity, induced apoptosis and increased caspase-3/9 activity in human laryngocarcinoma cells. Ophiopogonin D significantly suppressed cyclin B1 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) protein expression, and upregulated p-p38 MAPK protein expression in human laryngocarcinoma cells. Together, these results suggest Ophiopogonin D inhibits cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in human laryngocarcinoma cells through downregulation of cyclin B1 and MMP-9 and upregulation of the p38 MAPK signaling pathway. Therefore, Ophiopogonin D may be a potential therapy for the treatment of human laryngocarcinoma.

In the central auditory system, cartwheel cells (CWCs) are a group of interneurons in the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN). While other DCN neurons respond to stimuli with a simple discharge pattern of single action potentials (SAPs), CWCs respond with complex action potentials (CAPs), consisting of SAPs superimposed on a slow depolarization. The CAPs in CWCs may participate in various auditory or non‑auditory signaling processing but its intrinsic mechanisms are largely unknown. In the present study, in vitro whole‑cell current clamp recordings on neonatal mice brain slices were used to demonstrate that CWCs respond to brief voltage stimulation with CAPs. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry were also utilized to demonstrate that Nav1.9 was expressed in the CWCs. Finally, when Nav1.9 was genetically silenced, CWCs responded to voltage stimulation with SAPs, not CAPs. The results strongly suggested that Nav1.9 was expressed and functionally contributed to the signaling processing in the central auditory pathway.