Open Access

ARTICLE

Quercetin induced HepG2 cells apoptosis through ATM/JNK/STAT3 signaling pathways

WANTONG LIU^1,#, DANYANG CHEN^1,#, JINGYAO SU^1,#, RUILIN ZHENG^1,#, RAN KONG¹, BING ZHU¹, HAO DONG^2,*, YINGHUA LI^1,*

1 Center Laboratory, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, 510120, China
2 College of Light Industry and Food Sciences, Innovation Research Institute of Modern Agricultural Engineering, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, 510225, China

* Corresponding Authors: Hao Dong, ; Yinghua Li,
# These authors contributed equally to this work

BIOCELL 2023, 47(1), 187-194. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.023030

Received 06 April 2022; Accepted 29 June 2022; Issue published 26 September 2022

Abstract

Liver cancer is the seventh most common malignant tumor in the world and is the second highest cause of death due to cancer. Quercetin, a flavonoid with low toxicity, widely exists in various fruits and vegetables. It has the potential to be a therapeutic agent against various cancers. This study aimed to demonstrate the anti-tumor effect of quercetin on HepG2 cells. Quercetin suppressed the HepG2 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner in cell viability assay. Induction of cell apoptosis was confirmed by apoptotic cells population (sub-G1 peak) detected by flow cytometer. A decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential and caspase-3 activation were also demonstrated in this study. Furthermore, quercetin induced HepG2 cell apoptosis through ROS-mediated phosphorylated ataxia-telangiectasia mutated, c-Jun Nterminal kinases, signal transducer, and activator of transcription 3 (STAT-3), and Bax signaling pathways. These results suggest that quercetin has the potential to become an effective drug against the tumor.

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