Open Access

ARTICLE

Gene expression profile analysis reveals the effect of metformin treatment on HepG2 cells

by YI HUANG^1,2, CHUNFENG DOU², XUMING HU², HENGMI CUI^2,*

1 School of Pharmacy, Suzhou Vocational Health College, Suzhou, 215000, China
2 Institute of Epigenetics & Epigenomics, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China

* Corresponding Author: HENGMI CUI. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Decoding Gene (including circRNA, lincRNA miRNA and mRNA) Expression)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(4), 961-967. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.018131

Received 01 June 2021; Accepted 03 September 2021; Issue published 15 December 2021

Abstract

Metformin is a first-line drug in the fight against type 2 diabetes. In recent years, studies have shown that metformin has some preventive and therapeutic effects on liver cancer, but the effects of metformin on the gene expression of liver cancer cells are not fully known. This study focused on the differences in the gene expression profiles in liver cancer cells treated with or without metformin. A total of 153 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (FC > 2 and q-values < 0.001) were found, including 77 upregulated genes and 76 downregulated genes. These DEGs are involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB), cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), and leukocyte transendothelial migration signaling pathways. These findings reveal the effects of metformin treatment on gene expression profiles in liver cancer cells and provide new clues for unveiling the mechanism of the antitumor effects of metformin.

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