Luteolin inhibits invasion of prostate cancer PC3 cells through E-cadherin

Luteolin, a common dietary flavonoid, has been found to have antitumor properties and therefore poses special interest for the development of preventive and/or therapeutic agent for cancers. E-cadherin, a marker of epithelial cells, mediates cell-cell adhesion. Decreased expression of E-cadherin results in a loss of cell-cell adhesion and an increased cell invasion. Many studies have shown the antiproliferative activities of luteolin on cancer cells. However, the effects of luteolin on invasion of cancer cells remain unclear. In this article, we show that luteolin inhibits invasion of prostate cancer PC3 cells through E-cadherin. We found that Luteolin induced expression of E-cadherin through mdm2. Overexpression of mdm2 or knockdown of E-cadherin could restore invasion of PC3 cells after luteolin treatment. Luteolin inhibits mdm2 through AKT and overexpression of active AKT attenuated luteolin-induced expression of E-cadherin, suggesting that luteolin regulates E-cadherin through AKT/mdm2 pathway. The in vivo experiments showed that luteolin inhibited spontaneous lung metastasis of PC3 cells implanted onto the nude mice. These findings provide a new sight into the mechanisms that luteolin is against cancer cells, and suggest that molecular targeting of E-cadherin by luteolin may be a useful strategy for treatment of invasive prostate cancers.