Hydroxysafflor yellow A sensitizes ovarian cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agent by decreasing WSB1 expression

Abstract Introduction Carthamus tinctorius L. (safflower) is a traditional Chinese medicine, the active ingredient of which is hydroxysafflor yellow A (HSYA). 2 HSYA has been shown to have the potential to inhibit tumor growth. However, the molecular mechanisms whereby HSYA exerts its antitumor functions remain largely unclear. In this study, we investigated the antitumor mechanisms of HSYA in ovarian cancer cell line Skov3. Methods The cell proliferation assay was conducted using a Cell Proliferation Assay kit. The cell viability assay was performed using the CellTiter-Blue Cell Viability kit. Microarray was conducted to identify the global gene expression change of ovarian cancer cells caused by HSYA treatment. Small interfering RNA (SiRNA) 3 transfection was conducted to knock down WD repeat and SOCS box-containing protein 1 (WSB1) 4 . WSB1 expression was detected by quantitative reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) 5 . The protein expression of extracellular signal-related kinase (Erk) 6 1/2 and phosphorylation-Erk1/2 was detected by western blot. Results HSYA inhibited Skov3 cell proliferation in a dose-dependent manner (P  Conclusion HSYA may inhibit ovarian cancer cell line Skov3 proliferation and sensitize Skov3 cells to chemotherapeutic agents through the reduction of WSB1 expression.