Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a kind of malignant
tumor with high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. Epithelial-mesenchymal transformation (EMT) is crucial for HCC progression and prognosis. Characteristics of the tumor microenvironment, such as
hypoxia, and excessive activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway have been identified as the key inducers of EMT in HCC. In our study, we verified the crosstalk between HIF-1α signaling and NF-κB pathway and their effects on EMT in HCC cells. The results show that CoCl2-induced
hypoxia could promote IκB phosphorylation to activate NF-κB signaling and vice versa. Moreover, we found that
ginsenoside CK, a metabolite of
protopanaxadiol saponins, could inhibit the proliferation and colony formation of different HCC cell lines. Furthermore,
ginsenoside CK could impair the metastatic potential of HCC cell lines under hypoxic conditions. Mechanistically,
ginsenoside CK suppressed HIF-1α/NF-κB signaling and expression level of EMT-related
proteins and
cytokines in
hypoxia-induced or TNFα-stimulated HCC cell lines. An in vivo study revealed that the oral delivery of
ginsenoside CK could inhibit the growth of xenograft
tumors and block HIF-1α and NF-κB signaling as well as EMT marker expression. Our study suggests that
ginsenoside CK is a potential
therapy for HCC patients that functions by targeting the HIF-1α/NF-κB crosstalk.