Effects of TPL and hyperthermia on proliferation, apoptosis, and expression of p62 protein of human hepatoma cells

FENG Xiaomin; MA Rui; XIA Pei; HE Hao; WEI Bai

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2019.02.003

Abstract：Objective To study the effects of triptolide ( TPL) and hyperthermia on proliferation, apoptosis, and the expression of p62 protein of human hepatoma cell line HepG2. Methods HepG2 cells were divided into four groups: the control group without any treatment, TPL group which was added with TPL at a final concertration of 20 nmol/L for 24 h, hyperthermia group which was heated at 43℃ for 150 min, and the combination group which was added with TPL and then received hyperthermia. The 3- ( 4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl) -2, 5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide ( MTT) assay was adopted to detect the proliferation rates of cells. The apoptosis was observed by flow cytometry ( FCM) . The expression of p62 protein was detected by Western blotting. Results The proliferative inhibition rate in the combination group was higher than those of the TPL group and hyperthermia group ( P < 0. 05) . There was no statistically significant difference in the cell proliferation inhibition rate between the TPL group and hyperthermia group. The apoptosis rate was in the following order: the control group < TPL group, hyperthermia group < the combination group ( P < 0. 05) . No statistically significant difference was found in the apoptosis rate between the TPL group and hyperthermia group. The relative expression of p62 protein was in the following order: the control group < TPL group, hyperthermia group < the combination group ( P < 0. 05) , and there was no significant difference in the expression of p62 protein between the TPL group and hyperthermia group. Conclusion TPL combined hyperthermia can significantly accelerate apoptosis and inhibit the proliferation of hepatoma cells by up-regulating the expression of p62 protein and inhibiting the cell autophagy.