To investigate the effect and mechanism of chelidonine on the proliferation of glioblastoma cells.

Glioblastoma cell line U87 was treated with chelidonine as the experimental group and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) as the control group. Flow cytometry assay was used to detecte cell cycle. Western blotting was used to detecte the protein expressions of p53 and p21. The expression of p53 was inhibited by small RNA interference. GraphPad Prism 6 was used for statistical analysis. The measurement data were expressed as Mean±SD, and the comparison between groups was analyzed by Student’s t test.

Treated by chelidonine, the proliferation ability (450 A value) (0.783±0.030) of the U87 cells was significantly inhibited compared with the control group (1.343±0.022, t=14.850, P<0.05). Cell cycle analysis showed that the proportion of G1 phase cells in the experimental group (65.93±1.61)% was more than that in the control group [(54.67±1.76)%, t=4.734, P<0.05]. Western blotting results showed that compared with the control group (1.06±0.03, 1.07±0.04), the expressions of p53 and p21 in the experimental group were significantly increased (2.78±0.12, 4.08±0.13, t=13.620, 22.170, P<0.05). When the expression of p53 was inhibited, compared with the control group [(36.13±0.71)%], there was no statistically significant difference of the proportion of G1 phase cells in the experimental group [(35.43±0.64)%, t=0.734, P>0.05]. Western blotting results showed that compared with the control group (1.04±0.03, 1.04±0.03), the expression of p53 and p21 in the experimental group (1.11±0.01, 1.16±0.05) showed no significant difference (t=2.209, 2.171, P>0.05).

Chelidonine inhibits glioblastoma cells proliferating by promoting the expression of p53.

Chelidonine; GIioblastoma; P53; Proliferation