Combination therapy with local radiofrequency ablation and YC-1 inhibits the proliferation and metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma through activating β-catenin signaling.

Abstract

This study was aimed to investigate the possible role of combination therapy of 3-(5'-hydroxymethyl-2'-furyl)-1-benzylindazole (YC-1) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The two kinds of HCC HCCLM3 and HepG2 cells were intervened by the RFA and YC-1 respectively to construct the model cell. Then cell proliferation, apoptosis, migration and invasion were analyzed using the MTT, flow cytometry and transwell assay respectively. Moreover, the cell signal-related protein expression was also analyzed using western blotting. Our results showed that the combination therapy of RFA and YC-1 significantly inhibited the proliferation and induced the apoptosis of the two kinds of cells (P < 0.05). Besides, cell migration and invasion were inhibited by the combination of RFA and YC-1, followed with the EMT symbols of E-cadherin, N-cadherin and vimentin expression in cells (P < 0.05). Moreover, the β-catenin signal was activated by the combination treatment. Taken together, the data presented in this study reveals that the novel method about combination of RFA and YC-1 may opposite an improve effect on the treatment of HCC than the RFA single treatment. Also, the combination therapy of RFA and YC-1 may well inhibit the development and metastasis of HCC via preventing the EMT through activating the β-catenin signal.