Autophagy induced by baicalin involves downregulation of CD147 in SMMC-7721 cells in vitro

Baicalin has been demonstrated to exert anticancer effects mainly throughinduction of tumor cell apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. However, the precisemechanisms underlying its anticancer role remain to be elucidated. In the presentstudy, we investigated whether autophagy was involved in the anticancer activityof baicalin in the human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line SMMC-7721 andthe possible molecular mechanisms. Our data showed that the viability of SMMC-7721cells was significantly inhibited by baicalin in a dose- and time-dependent manner.Alongside apoptosis, autophagy was also induced by baicalin dose- and time-dependentlywith the involvement of the autophagy-associated protein Βeclin 1. Moreover, wedemonstrated that cell death induced by baicalin was significantly inhibited bythe apoptosis inhibitor z-DEVD-fmk or the autophagy inhibitor 3-MA, respectively.In addition, we found that CD147, a key molecule related both to apoptosis andautophagy, was markedly downregulated at the protein level in SMMC-7721 cellstreated with baicalin. Collectively, this is the first study to suggest that baicalininduces autophagic cell death in SMMC-7721 cells, which involves the downregulationof CD147. Our study reveals a new mechanism for the anticancer effects of baicalinand puts forward a potential crucial role of CD147 in baicalin-induced cancercell death.