Effects of Sulforaphane on G_2 /M Phase Arrest in HepG-2 Cells and the Expression of Cdk1 and CyclinB1

Objective:To investigate the effect of Sulforaphane (SFN) on G2 /M phase arrest of human liver cancer HepG-2 cells in vitro and its molecular mechanism. Methods HepG-2 cells were treated with 10,20 and 40 μmol/L of SFN for 48h. Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to analyze the phase distribution of cell cycle. The expression of Cdk1,pCdk1(Thr14) and CyclinB1 was determined by Western Blotting. Results:After treated with different concentration of SFN for 48 h,HepG-2 cells presented with increasing percentages of cells in the G2 /M phase as the concentration of SFN increased. At the dosage of 40 μmol/L,the proportion of HepG-2 cells in G2 /M phase was 31. 95% and the apoptotic sub-G1 peak appeared. With the increase of SFN dose,the expresstion of Cdk1 and CyclinB1 protein was remarkably decreased(P 0. 05 or P 0. 01) and the expresstion of p-Cdk1(Thr14) protein was increased markedly(P 0. 05 or P 0. 01). Conclusion: SFN can induce G2 /M phase arrest in HepG-2 cells in vitro. SFN can down-regulate the expression of Cdk1 and CyclinB1 and up-regulating the expression of p-Cdk1 (Thr14) protein,which may be one of the main mechanism of SFN inducing G2 /M phase arrest in human liver cancer HepG-2 cells.