Effect of taurine on the proliferation, apoptosis and MST1/ Hippo signaling in prostate cancer cells

Xu Song; Bao Yuan; Shijia Zhao; Dongyan Zhao

doi:10.21037/tcr-22-1297

Effect of taurine on the proliferation, apoptosis and MST1/ Hippo signaling in prostate cancer cells

Transl Cancer Res. 2022 Jun;11(6):1705-1712. doi: 10.21037/tcr-22-1297.

Authors

Xu Song^#¹, Bao Yuan^#², Shijia Zhao³, Dongyan Zhao⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Urology, The Seventh People's Hospital of Shanghai University of TCM, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Urology, Tianjin Beichen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Tianjin, China.
³ Department of Urology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China.
⁴ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: To investigate the effects of taurine on prostate cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis, and on the mammalian sterilization of a 20-like kinase-1 (MST1)/Hippo signaling pathway.

Methods: The prostate cancer DU145 cell line was selected and the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) method was used to determine the rate of inhibition by taurine on the proliferation of the cells at 1, 10^-1, 10^-2, 10^-3, 10^-4, 10^-5 and 10^-6 mg/mL to obtain the taurine intervention concentrations. The cultured cells were divided into three groups: the blank group was cultured with conventional culture medium, the positive control group was cultured with 2 mg/mL cisplatin, and the taurine group was cultured with the determined taurine intervention concentrations of 0.003 mg/mL as low, 0.03 mg/mL as medium and 0.3 mg/mL as high concentration. After 72 h incubation, cell proliferation, apoptosis and cellular MST1/Hippo signaling pathway protein expression were observed.

Results: In the comparison of cell proliferation rate, the taurine group was lower than the positive control group and the blank group (P<0.05), the cell proliferation rate of different concentrations in the taurine group decreased with the increase of concentration (P<0.05). The apoptosis rate was higher in the taurine group than in the positive control group and the blank group (P<0.05), the apoptosis rate increased with increasing concentration in the taurine group (P<0.05). The expression of MST1 and Bax was higher in the taurine group than in the positive control group and the blank group (P<0.05), the expression of MST1 and Bax increased with increasing concentration in the taurine group (P<0.05). The expression of YAP and Bcl-2 was lower in the taurine group than in the positive control group and the blank group (P<0.05), the expression of YAP and Bcl-2 decreased with increasing concentration in the taurine group (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Taurine promoted apoptosis and inhibited proliferation of prostate cancer cells, and its mechanism of action may be related to the MST1/Hippo signaling pathway in a dose-dependent manner.

Keywords: Apoptosis; cell proliferation; mammalian sterilization of a 20-like kinase-1/Hippo signaling pathway (MST1/Hippo signaling pathway); prostate cancer; taurine.