Abstract

The pathological mechanism of liver cancer is complex. Interferon regulatory factor-1 can be used as a tumor suppressor, which has an important anti-cancer effect in liver cancer. Metformin has also shown to have therapeutic value in various cancers, but whether it influences the malignant development of liver cancer cells through interferon regulatory factor-1 remains unclear and this study finds out this association. We used cell counting kit-8 to detect the effects of metformin on hepatoma cell lines, HepG2 and Huh-7, interferon regulatory factor-1 levels, cell counting kit-8, and Transwell and flow cytometry to evaluate the role of metformin and interferon regulatory factor-1, Lentivirus interfering vectors on hepatoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion, respectively. The results showed that 10 mM metformin had a significant effect on HepG2 and Huh-7 survival; interferon regulatory factor-1 was significantly under-expressed in HepG2 and HH-7 cells, which could be up-regulated by metformin intervention. Subsequently, metformin intervention was found to validly suppress HepG2 and Huh-7 cells proliferation, migration and invasion, while significantly inducing apoptosis, but the aforementioned anti-tumor effect of metformin was offset by interferon regulatory factor-1 Lentivirus interfering vectors. This indicates that metformin has the ability to inhibit liver cancer cell growth and metastasis, and this effect is related to its regulation of interferon regulatory factor-1.