Korea Food Research Institute, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do, Republic of Korea.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Asan Medical Center, AMIST, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2020 May 6;10(1):7620. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-64603-2.
Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a major cellular process in which epithelial cells lose cell polarity and cell-cell adhesion and become motility and invasiveness by transforming into mesenchymal cells. Catechol is one of the natural compounds present in fruits and vegetables and has various pharmacological and physiological activities including anti-carcinogenic effects. However, the effects of catechol on EMT has not been reported. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) is one of the growth factors and is known to play a role in inducing EMT. The present study showed that catechol suppressed not only the morphological changes to the mesenchymal phenotype of epithelial HCC cells, but also the reduction of E-cadherin and the increment of Vimentin, which are typical hallmark of EMT. In addition, catechol suppressed EMT-related steps such as migration, invasion, anoikis resistance acquisition, and stem cell-like characterization through the EGFR-AKT-ERK signaling pathway during liver cancer metastasis. Therefore, these results suggest that catechol may be able to regulate the early metastasis of liver cancer in vitro.
上皮-间充质转化（EMT）是上皮细胞失去细胞极性和细胞间黏附性，并通过向间充质细胞转化而获得运动性和侵袭性的主要细胞过程。儿茶酚是存在于水果和蔬菜中的天然化合物之一，具有多种药理和生理活性，包括抗癌作用。然而，儿茶酚对 EMT 的影响尚未报道。表皮生长因子（EGF）是一种生长因子，已知其在诱导 EMT 中发挥作用。本研究表明，儿茶酚不仅抑制了上皮 HCC 细胞向间充质表型的形态变化，还抑制了 E-钙黏蛋白的减少和波形蛋白的增加，这是 EMT 的典型标志。此外，儿茶酚通过 EGFR-AKT-ERK 信号通路抑制了 EMT 相关步骤，如迁移、侵袭、抗凋亡和获得干细胞样特征，从而在肝癌转移过程中。因此，这些结果表明儿茶酚可能能够调节体外肝癌的早期转移。
