Deguelin suppresses angiogenesis in human hepatocellular carcinoma by targeting HGF-c-Met pathway

Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in the development of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, we found a natural compound, deguelin, has a profound anti-angiogenesis effect on HCC. Deguelin suppressed vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-induced human umbilical vascular endothelial cells (HUVECs) proliferation, migration, invasion, and capillary-like tube formation in vitro and reduced tumor angiogenesis in vivo. We discovered that VEGF receptor-mediated signal transduction cascades in HUVECs were inhibited by deguelin. Deguelin decreased the autocrine of VEGF in HCC cells in a time- and dose-dependent manner. Additionally, deguelin suppressed HGF-induced activation of the c-Met signaling pathway. Knocking down c-Met or inhibition of c-Met activation impaired HGF-mediated VEGF production. Importantly, we produced patient-derived hepatocellular carcinoma xenografts to evaluate the therapeutic effect of deguelin in vivo. Taken together, these results indicate that deguelin could inhibit HCC through suppression of angiogenesis on vascular endothelial cells and reduction of proangiogenic factors in cancer cells.