Sodium orthovanadate inhibits growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro and in an orthotopic model in vivo

• Sodium orthovanadate (SOV) inhibited growth of the human HCC cells in vitro.
• SOV inhibited growth of the human HCC cells in an orthotopic model in vivo.
• SOV could regulate the proliferation, cell cycle and apoptosis of HCC cells.
• SOV could inhibit autophagy in HCC cells, which plays a prodeath role.

The transition metal vanadium is widely distributed in the environment and exhibits various biological and physiological effects in the human body. As a well known vanadium compound, sodium orthovanadate (SOV) has shown promising antineoplastic activity in several human cancers. However, the effects of SOV on liver cancer are still unknown. In this study, for the first time, we showed that SOV could effectively suppress proliferation, induce G2/M cell cycle arrest and apoptosis, and diminish the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of HCC cells in vitro. In addition, our in vitro results were recapitulated in vivo, showing that SOV exhibited a dose-dependent inhibition of growth of human HCC in an orthotopic model, evidenced by the reduction in tumor size, proliferation index and microvessel density, and increase in cell apoptosis. Most important, we found that SOV could inhibit autophagy in HCC cells in vitro and in vivo, which plays a prodeath role. Thus, our findings suggest that SOV could effectively suppress the growth of human HCC through the regulations of proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis and autophagy, and thus may act as a potential therapeutic agent in HCC treatment.