To explore the mechanism of Chinese Yam polysaccharide (CYPS) regulating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells apoptosis through the molecular axis of miR-98-5p/TGFβR1.

The expression of miR-98-5p in different HCC cell lines was detected by qPCR. Huh-7 cell was treated with CYPS at different concentrations, cell proliferation activity was detected by CCK-8,apoptosis rate was detected by Annexin V-FITC/PI flow cytometry, and the expressions of TGFβR1 and apoptosis-related proteins Caspase-3, Caspase-8, Bcl-2 and Bax were detected by Western blotting. The dual luciferase reporter gene system was used to verify the targeted relationship between miR-98-5p and TGFβR1.

Compared with human normal hepatocytes HL-7702, the expression of miR-98-5pwas increased in HCC cell lines (all P<0.05), and the expression in Huh-7 cell was higher than other cells (P<0.05). CYPS treatment could significantly inhibit the proliferation of Huh-7 cell (all P<0.05) and induce cell apoptosis (all P<0.05), and the inhibitory effect of 10^-3 kg/L CYPS on cell proliferation was more obvious than other concentrations. The dual luciferase reporter gene experiment confirmed that miR-98-5p targeted and regulated TGFβR1. Compared with the 10^-3 kg/L CYPS group, miR-98-5p mimics could down-regulate the inhibitory effect of 10^-3 kg/L CYPS on cell proliferation (P<0.05) and the promotion of cell apoptosis (P<0.01). The cell proliferation activity in the 10^-3 kg/L CYPS+miR-98-5pmimics+pcDNA-TGFβR1 group was significantly lower than that in the 10^-3 kg/L CYPS+miR-98-5p mimics group (P<0.05), while the level of cell apoptosis was significantly increased (P<0.01).

CYPS can inhibit the proliferation of Huh-7 cell, induce apoptosis, down-regulate miR-98-5p and promote the expression of TGFβR1.