Scutellarin inhibits proliferation and invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma cells via down‐regulation of JAK2/STAT3 pathway

The prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is poor because of high incidence of recurrence and metastasis. JAK/STAT signalling pathway regulates cell proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and migration and epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) is also considered to contribute to invasion and metastasis of epithelial malignant tumours. Scutellarin is an active component found in many traditional Chinese herbs and has been regularly used in anti‐inflammatory and antitumour medicine. This study aimed to identify the effect of scutellarin and its possible mechanism of action in HCC cells. Proliferation, colony‐forming, apoptosis and cell migration assays were used to examine the effect of scutellarin on HCC cells. Quantitative real‐time PCR and Western blotting were performed to study the molecular mechanisms of action of scutellarin. Light and electron microscopy and immunofluorescence analysis were performed to study the effect of scutellarin on cellular mechanics. We show that scutellarin potentially suppresses invasiveness of HepG2 and MHCC97‐H cells in vitro by remodelling their cytoskeleton. The molecular mechanism behind it might be the inhibition of the EMT process, which could be attributed to the down‐regulation of the JAK2/STAT3 pathway. These findings may provide new clinical ideas for the treatment of liver cancer.