Chrysin inhibits sphere formation in SMMC-7721 cells via modulation of SHP-1/STAT3 signaling pathway - GreenMedInfo Summary

Chrysin is a natural flavonoid which has been identified as a candidate anti-cancer agent due to its inhibitory effect on a variety of cancer cells, including targeted inhibition of sphere formation in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell lines. However, the mechanism by which chrysin modulates HCC spheres remains unclear.In this study, we investigate the effect of chrysin on the regulation of SHP-1 and its downstream signal molecule STAT3 to explain the mechanism by which chrysin inhibits sphere formation of HCC cell lines.Here, we found that SHP-1 protein expression was markedly down-regulated in the spheres from both SMMC-7721 and MHCC97H cells. Chrysin significantly inhibited sphere formation and upregulated the expression of SHP-1 protein in both SMMC-7721 and MHCC97H cells, as well as reduced p-STAT3 and Twist1 expressions in SMMC-7721 cells. Furthermore, knockdown of SHP-1 in SMMC-7721 cells resulted in the induction of p-STAT3 and Twist1 protein expression and antagonizing the inhibitory effect of chrysin on sphere formation in SMMC-7721 cells.Overall, the study findings demonstrated that chrysin acts as a candidate for the treatment of HCC through modulating SHP-1/STAT3 signaling pathway.