Anticytoproliferative effect of Vitamin C on rat hepatic stellate cell

This study was conducted to investigate the potential therapeutical benefit of Vitamin (VC), a potent antioxidant, on suppressing proliferation of immortalized rat liver stellate cell line (HSC-T6) in vitro, and to discuss the underlying mechanism. HSC-T6 was co-treated with different concentrations of VC (50, 100, 200 μmol/L) on designed time points. Then, cell viability was assessed by using MTT analysis, and the changes of cytomorphology was observed with apoptosis-specific TUNEL and immunohistochemical stains, as well as the intracellular target genes was determined by using RT-PCR, respectively. As the outcomes, VC-treated HSC-T6 showed significantly inhibited cell growth in a dose-dependent manner when compared to the vehicle control. Cytologically, VC increased TUNEL-labeled positive cells in cultured HSC-T6, which the cell count was greater than vehicle control. Meanwhile, VC-treated HSC-T6 showed elevated immunoreactive for TGF-β1-labeled cells. Moreover, VC contributed to down-regulated expressions of intracellular c-myc, cyclin D1, mTOR mRNAs in HSC-T6. Collectively, these preliminary findings have demonstrated that VC-mediated anti-proliferative effect on HSCs is involved in molecular mechanisms of promoting apoptosis and blocking endogenous collagenation.