Research Paper|Volume 11, Issue 11|pp 3668—3678

Apigenin inhibits growth and migration of fibroblasts by suppressing FAK signaling

Hongyi Wang¹, Bingyu Guo¹, Shixiu Lin¹, Peng Chang¹, Kai Tao¹

¹Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery, General Hospital of North Theater, PLA, Shenyang, P.R.China

* Equal contribution

Received: January 25, 2019Accepted: May 29, 2019Published: June 5, 2019

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102006

Copyright: Wang et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

The naturally occurring compound apigenin has many biological effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and anticancer effects. Although hypertrophic scar formation is a common surgical complication, there is still no good treatment for it. In the present study, we examined the effect of apigenin on hypertrophic scar. After isolating fibroblasts from human hypertrophic scars, we assess the effects of apigenin on fibroblast cell survival, apoptosis and migration. The results showed that apigenin dose-dependently inhibited the growth and migration of hypertrophic scar fibroblasts. By inhibiting FAK kinase activity and FAK phosphorylation, apigenin also inhibited activation of the FAK signaling pathway. Apigenin thus appears to inhibit the growth and migration of hypertrophic scar fibroblasts by inhibiting FAK signaling. This suggests apigenin could potentially provide a new option for the treatment of hypertrophic scars.