MicroRNA expression profiling of hepatocellular carcinoma cell line BEL-7402 treated with baicalein

Baicalein, a purified flavonoid compound with defined chemical structure extracted from the dry roots of Scutellaria radix that is a broadly used herb in China, has been proved to possess significant anti-hepatoma activity by inhibiting cell proliferation, invasion, metastasis and inducing apoptosis, autophagy via several cancer-related signaling molecules. In recent years, emerging studies have demonstrated that Chinese medicinal herbs can exert their anti-tumor effects through targeting miRNAs，such as curcumin, camptothecin, resveratrol. However, there is still no related report about the effects of baicalein on miRNA expression profile when it exerts its inhibition on hepatoma tumor growth. To investigate whether the antitumor effect of baicalein is related to its modulation of miRNA expression in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we profiled the miRNA expression in HCC cell line Bel-7402 treated with baicalein (0, 40, 80μM) for 24 hours using miRNA microarray and detected the changes by comparing the miRNA expression profile of HCC cell line Bel-7402 treated with baicalein (40 and 80 μM) and its DMSO control (0 μM). These findings suggest that modulation of miRNA expression may be an important mechanism underlying the anti-hepatoma effects of baicalein and lay the groundwork for further investigations. In this study, we profiled the miRNA expression in hepatocellular carcinoma cell line Bel-7402 treated with baicalein (40 μM), baicalein (80 μM) and and DMSO control (0 μM) for 24 hours using miRNA microarray, and each of three groups have three biological replicates.