Effect And Mechanism Of All-Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA) On Oct4in HepG2Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cell Line

ObjectiveBy applying all-trans retinoic acid on the human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lineHepG2in vitro, we plan to investigate the effect and potential mechanism of ATRA oncancer stem cell differentiation gene Oct4in HepG2cell line from gene and signalingpathways, also we would like to discuss its possible molecular mechanism of inducingcancer stem cell differentiation from signaling pathways. Thereby establish foundations forusing ATRA to treat liver-cancer on clinic.MethodsHepG2cells were cultured in vitro and treated with ATRA for72hours.Thebromocresol green method was used to analyse the changes of ALB production；Reversetranscriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and western blotting assay wereused to analyze the changes of Oct4、wnt1、β-Catenin on mRNA transcription and proteinexpression levels, respectively.ResultsBromocresol green method suggests that ATRA induces HepG2cell differentiation,the production of Alb increases significantly(P<0.05)；RT-PCR and Western blot analysisindicate that after72hours’ treatment with ATRA, both the mRNA levels and protein levelsof Oct4、wnt1、β-Catenin in HepG2cells are down-regulated in a dose-dependent manner；Conclusions1.ATRA is effective to induce the differentiation of HepG2cells. 2.The effect of ATRA on cancer stem cell differentiation gene Oct4in HepG2humanhepatocellular carcinoma cell line may be related to wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.