Glycyrrhizin suppresses epithelial-mesenchymal transition by inhibiting high-mobility group box1 via the TGF- β 1/Smad2/3 pathway in lung epithelial cells

Yanni Gui; Jian Sun; Wenjie You; Yuanhui Wei; Han Tian; Shujuan Jiang

doi:10.7717/peerj.8514

Glycyrrhizin suppresses epithelial-mesenchymal transition by inhibiting high-mobility group box1 via the TGF- β 1/Smad2/3 pathway in lung epithelial cells

PeerJ. 2020 Feb 3:8:e8514. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8514. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yanni Gui^#^{1

2}, Jian Sun^#^{1

3}, Wenjie You^{1

3}, Yuanhui Wei^{1

2}, Han Tian^{1

2}, Shujuan Jiang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
² Cheeloo Collage of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China.
³ Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, Shandong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays an important role in fibrosis, chronic inflammation, tumor metastasis, etc. Glycyrrhizin, an active component extracted from licorice plant, has been reported to treat a variety of inflammatory reactions through inhibiting high-mobility group box1 (HMGB1), which has been suggested to be a significant mediator in EMT process. However, whether glycyrrhizin affects the EMT process or not remains unclear.

Methods: Human alveolar epithelial cell line A549 and normal human bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B were treated with extrinsic TGF-β1 to induce EMT. Elisa was used to detect HMGB1 concentrations in cell supernatant. RNA interference and lentivirus infection experiments were performed to investigate the involvement of HMGB1 in EMT process. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) was used to detect the viability of A549 and BEAS-2B cells treated with glycyrrhizin. Finally, the effects of glycyrrhizin on EMT changes, as well as the underlying mechanisms, were evaluated via Western blot, immunofluorescence and transwell assays.

Results: Our results showed that HMGB1 expression was increased by TGF-β1, and knockdown of HMGB1 expression reversed TGF-β1-induced EMT in A549 and BEAS-2B cells. Ectopic HMGB1 expression or TGF-β1 treatment caused a significant increase in HMGB1 release. Notably, we found that glycyrrhizin treatment effectively suppressed TGF-β1-induced EMT process by inhibiting HMGB1. Also, glycyrrhizin significantly inhibited the migration of both A549 and BEAS-2B cells promoted by TGF-β1. Mechanistically, HMGB1 overexpression could activate Smad2/3 signaling in A549 and BEAS-2B cells. Glycyrrhizin significantly blocked the phosphorylation of Smad2/3 stimulated either by TGF-β1 or by ectopic HMGB1 in A549 and BEAS-2B cells.

Conclusions: HMGB1 is a vital mediator of EMT changes induced by TGF-β1 in lung epithelial cells. Importantly, glycyrrhizin can effectively block Smad2/3 signaling pathway through inhibiting HMGB1, thereby suppressing the EMT progress.

Keywords: Chronic airway diseases; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Glycyrrhizin; High-mobility group box1; Lung epithelial cells; TGF-β1.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81370138), the Health and Family Planning Commission of Shandong Province (No.2017WS026), the Key Research and Development Plan of Shandong Province (No.2019GSF107042 and No.2019GSF107051). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.