Metformin inhibits glioma cells stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition via regulating YAP activity

Publication date: June 2018
Source:Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, Volume 102
Author(s): Xuesong Yuan, Wenfeng Wei, Qing Bao, Hongchun Chen, Peng Jin, Wenqing Jiang
This work aims to study the roles and mechanisms of metformin in glioma cells stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Here, we found that metformin suppressed glioma cells spheroid formation and size, inhibited the expression of glioma stemness-related marker, CD133. Additionally, Metformin attenuated TGF-β-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition in glioma cells. Mechanistically, metformin inhibited the nuclear abundance of YAP, a key effector of Hippo pathway, subsequently leading to its cytoplasmic retention, and thus reduced YAP transcriptional modulating activity. Importantly, overexpression of a mutant form of YAP (YAP-5SA) attenuated the inhibition of metformin on glioma cells stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Thus, metformin inhibits glioma cells stemness and epithelial-mesenchymal transition via regulating YAP activity.

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