Anti-tumor effect of β-elemene in murine hepatocellular carcinoma cell line H22 depends on the level of c-Met downregulation

Backgroundβ-elemene, extracted from ginger plant Rhizoma zeodaria exerts anticancer effect in a variety of tumor diseases including liver cancer by inhibiting tumor cells growth or promoting apoptotic cell death. c-Met is a receptor tyrosine kinase was widely found overexpressed in neoplastic tissues and participates in the cell proliferation, migration, invasion, survival. To explore the primary mechanism of action of β-elemene in cancer, we identified whether there are some relations between the expression level of c-Met and anticancer actions of β-elemene.MethodsThe presence of c-Met in the H22 cells was confirmed by RT-PCR, Western blot and immunofluorescence analysis. In vitro, H22 cells were treated with β-elemene and the expression of c-Met was measured by RT-PCR, immunofluorescence analysis and Western blot. In vivo, an experimental H22 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) xenograft transplantation model, treating with different dose-dependent β-elemene, the expression of c-Met was measured by RT-PCR, Immunohistochemical staining assay.Resultsc-Met more highly expressed in H22 cells than that in murine liver cells; after treating with β-elemene for 48 h, the expression of c-met decreased markedly in H22 cells; furthermore, we showed that high-dosage groups significantly reduced tumor weights and down regulated the expression of c-Met compared to control groups in H22 transplanted tumor.ConclusionsDown-regulation of c-Met expression by β-elemene induces growth inhibition in murine hepatocellular carcinoma.