Withaferin A inhibits proliferation of human endometrial cancer cells via transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signalling

• Published in: 3 Biotech Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 323
• Main Authors: Xu, Kejun, Shi, Hongyan, Du, Yongming, Ou, Jilan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-07-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Anticancer properties; Apoptosis; Bioinformatics; Biomaterials; Biotechnology; Cancer Research; Carcinoma; Cell cycle; Cell proliferation; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Endometrial cancer; Endometrium; Growth factors; Original; Original Article; Phosphorylation; Proteins; Signal transduction; Signaling; Smad2 protein; Stem Cells; Toxicity; Transforming growth factor-b; Uterine cancer; Withaferin A; Endometrial cancer; Withanolides; TGF-β signalling; Apoptosis
• ISSN: 2190-572X; 2190-5738
• DOI: 10.1007/s13205-021-02878-6

The present study was designed to evaluate the anticancer effects of withaferin A against the human endometrial cancer via modulation of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signalling. The results of the present study revealed that withaferin A exerts a dose and time-dependent antiproliferative effects against the human KLE endometrial cancer cells with comparatively lower toxicity against the THESCs normal cells. The IC
50
of withaferin A against the KLE endometrial cancer cells was found to 10 μM. The results showed that withaferin A induced apoptosis and G
2
/M cell cycle arrest of the KLE cells which was associated with alteration of the apoptosis and cell cycle related proteins. In addition, the transwell assays showed that the migration and invasion of the KLE cells were inhibited by 53 and 40%, respectively. Finally, the effects of withaferin A were also examined on the TGF-β signalling pathway. The results showed that withaferin A blocked TGF-β-dependent Smad2 phosphorylation and expression of other TGF-β-related proteins in KLE cells. Summing up, the results suggest that withaferin A inhibits the proliferation of the human endometrial carcinoma via TGF-β signalling.