The metabolic profiles of control and MCF-7 cells treated with luteolin were analyzed separately using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry ( GC/MS ) to study the mechanism of the luteolin treatment on MCF-7 cells. Cell viability assays showed that luteolin had inhibition effect on MCF-7 cells. Partial least square discriminant analysis ( OPLS-DA) was used to process the metabolic data. Since cells in phase of S were increased significantly, we speculated that luteolin had a blocking effect on pentose phosphate pathway of MCF-7 cells, which contributed to its inhibition effect on proliferation of MCF-7 cells.

Objective: To investigate the effects of costunolide (Cos) on the proliferation, apoptosis, migration andinvasion of cholangiocarcinoma RBE cells, and explore its potential mechanism. Methods: The CCK-8, flow cytometry,Annexin V-FITC/PI double staining, Transwell assays were used to examine the influence of Cos on proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, migration and invasion of RBE cells after treated with gradient concentrations of Cos. The expressions of M M P 2 and M M P 9 were detected by qRT-PCR, and the expression of PI3K/AKT-associated signal proteins was detected by Western blotting. Results: Cosdose-dependently inhibited proliferation activity of RBE cells( P <0.05 or P <0.01), arrested cell cycle at S and G2/M phases and induced RBE cell apoptosis( P <0.01). Transwell and qRT-PCR results demonstrated that Cos impeded RBE cell migration, invasion, and reduced the transcription of M M P 2 and M M P 9 . Cos inhibited the expressionofp-AKT, Bcl-2, MMP2 and MMP9, the level of Bax. Conclusion: Cos restrained the proliferation, migration and invasion of RBE cells by suppressing PI3K/AKTpathway.