Cytotoxic effects of Phenformin on ovarian cancer cells: expression of HIF-1alpha and PDK1 in the hypoxic microenvironment

Vol. 64 No. 3, 2023

ROMANIAN JOURNAL of MORPHOLOGY and EMBRYOLOGY

Burcu Gunaydin, Gurkan Yigitturk, Hulya Elbe

Today, many anticancer drugs are used clinically for ovarian cancer, one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in women. Phenformin is an antidiabetic drug of the biguanide class. It improves the antiproliferative activity in cancer cells. Hypoxia is an important component associated with ovarian cancer and its tumor microenvironment. The aim of this study was to investigate the anticancer effects of Phenformin in SKOV-3 human ovarian cancer cells under hypoxic conditions. SKOV-3 human ovarian cancer cells treated with different doses of Phenformin (0.5 mM, 1 mM, 2 mM, 5 mM) for 24 hours were subjected to WST-1 cell viability assay and Annexin V apoptosis assay. A dose-dependent decrease in cell viability with Phenformin treatment was observed. In addition, Phenformin activated percentage of apoptotic SKOV-3 cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. In this study, Cobalt(II) chloride (CoCl2) treatment leads to increased hypoxia-inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) expression and Phenformin can recover hypoxic condition. HIF-1alpha protein expression was significantly correlated with cell viability assay and apoptosis assay. We also found that Phenformin inhibits expression of phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1) in SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cells. The ability to migrate to cancer cells was significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner with Phenformin. This data demonstrates that Phenformin treatment can induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation in ovarian cancer cells under hypoxic conditions. The findings reveal that HIF-1alpha is a new target for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Corresponding author: Hulya Elbe, Associate Professor, MD; e-mail: hulya.elbe@mu.edu.tr

DOI: 10.47162/RJME.64.3.07 Download PDF
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