Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan;57(1):44-56.
doi: 10.1002/mc.22718. Epub 2017 Sep 12.

Metformin incombination with curcumin inhibits the growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo

Hui-Hui Zhang  1 , Ying Zhang  1 , Yan-Na Cheng  1 , Fu-Lian Gong  1 , Zhan-Qi Cao  1 , Lu-Gang Yu  2 , Xiu-Li Guo  1
Affiliations

Metformin incombination with curcumin inhibits the growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma in vitro and in vivo

Hui-Hui Zhang et al. Mol Carcinog. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has poor prognosis due to the advanced disease stages by the time it is diagnosed, high recurrence rates and metastasis. In the present study, we investigated the effects of metformin (a safe anti-diabetic drug) and curcumin (a turmeric polyphenol extracted from rhizome of Curcuma longa Linn.) on proliferation, apoptosis, invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis of HCC in vitro and in vivo. It was found that co-treatment of metformin and curcumin could not only induce tumor cells into apoptosis through activating the mitochondria pathways, but also suppress the invasion, metastasis of HCC cells and angiogenesis of HUVECs. These effects were associated with downregulation of the expression of MMP2/9, VEGF, and VEGFR-2, up-regulation of PTEN, P53 and suppression of PI3K/Akt/mTOR/NF-κB and EGFR/STAT3 signaling. Co-administration of metformin and curcumin significantly inhibited HCC tumor growth than administration with metformin or curcumin alone in a xenograft mouse model. Thus, metformin and curcumin in combination showed a better anti-tumor effects in hepatoma cells than either metformin or curcumin presence alone and might represent an effective therapeutic strategy for HCC treatment.

Keywords: HCC; angiogenesis; curcumin; metastasis; metformin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources