Effects of curcumin on the role of MMP-2 in endometrial cancer cell proliferation and invasion

M.-X. Sun, F. Yu, M.-L. Gong, G.-L. Fan, C.-X. Liu

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital West, Beijing P.R. China. smx503@163.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the effect of curcumin concentrations on the proliferation and invasion of endometrial cancer cells.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Endometrial cancer cells were cultured with 0, 15, and 30 μmol/l curcumin, and were divided into control group, low concentration group, and high concentration group. The treatment included the silencing and overexpression of MMP-2. The expression of MMP-2 and E-cadherin were detected by Western blot and the expression level changes were recorded after MMP-2 was silenced and overexpressed. Pearson’s analysis was used to determine the relationship of curcumin concentration between MMP-2 mRNA. CCK-8 was used to detect the optical density of cancer cells in three groups. Transwell invasion assay was performed to analyze the invasion inhibition rate in the three groups.

RESULTS: Western blot and qPCR results: MMP-2 expression levels were lower and E-cadherin was higher in high concentration group than that in the low concentration group (p<0.01). MMP-2 protein and mRNA decreased after ShRNA and increased after overexpression (p<0.01). Pearson analysis revealed that the curcumin concentration was negatively correlated with the MMP-2 mRNA (r=-0.497, p=0.036). Cell optical density was lower with curcumin and the lowest was in high concentration group (p<0.01). After MMP-2 silencing, optical cell density decreased and this value increased after overexpression (p=0.000). Cell invasion results: Curcumin improves the rate of cell invasion (p<0.01). After silencing of MMP-2, cell invasion inhibition rate increased, while the invasion inhibition rate decreased after overexpression (p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Curcumin can downregulate MMP-2, inhibit the proliferation and invasion of cancer cells.

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