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Apigetrin (APG), as a flavonoid, has many cellular bioactivities, including regulation of oxidative stress, and induction of apoptosis. However, the means by which APG suppresses human gastric cancer are still little to be understood. In the present study, the anti-cancer effects of APG on human gastric cancer cells were investigated. The results indicated that APG could suppress the proliferation and induce apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. Its role in apoptosis induction was through reducing Bcl-2, and enhancing Bax, Caspase-9/-3 and poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) cleavage. In addition, APG incubation resulted in the generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cells. Meanwhile, APG suppressed constitutive and interleukin-6 (IL-6)-stimulated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), Janus kinase 2 gene (JAK2) and Src activation. However, ROS scavenger, N-acety-l-cysteine (NAC), diminished apoptosis induced by APG. And APG-triggered de-phosphorylation of STAT3/JAK2 was rescued by NAC pre-treatment. In vivo , APG administration significantly inhibited the gastric cancer cell xenograft tumorigenesis through inducing apoptosis and inhibiting STAT3/JAK2 pathways. Taken together, the findings above illustrated that APG might be used as a promising candidate against human gastric cancer progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic cardiomyopathy represents severe heart complications, and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes. Although a few microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in diabetes-related complications, a functional association between miRNAs and cardiac dysfunction in diabetic cardiomyopathy remains to be demonstrated. Our results show that miR-483-3p is upregulated in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice, and cultured cardiomyocytes mimicking hyperglycemia. Overexpressing miR-483-3p in transgenic mice with diabetes mellitus (DM) exacerbated cardiomyocyte apoptosis by transcriptionally repressing insulin growth factor 1 (IGF1). Therefore, we have uncovered a novel signaling pathway, involving miR-483-3p-IGF1, that promotes myocardial cell apoptosis under high blood-glucose condition. Further, our study indicates that miR-483-3p could be a potential therapeutic target for managing diabetes-associated heart complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]