Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 23 pp 25180—25194

Licochalcone A activation of glycolysis pathway has an anti-aging effect on human adipose stem cells

Yating Wu1, *, , Hao Wang2, *, , Jianbo Zhu1, , Haitao Shen1, , Hailiang Liu1,2, ,

  • 1 Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resource and Utilization of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China
  • 2 Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200123, China
* Equal contribution

Received: August 3, 2021       Accepted: November 23, 2021       Published: December 3, 2021      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203734
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2021 Wu 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

Licochalcone A (LA) is a chalcone flavonoid of Glycyrrhiza inflata, which has anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. However, no anti-aging benefits of LA have been demonstrated in vitro or in vivo. In this study, we explored whether LA has an anti-aging effect in adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). We performed β-galactosidase staining and measured reactive oxygen species, relative telomere lengths, and P16ink4a mRNA expression. Osteogenesis was assessed by Alizarin Red staining and adipogenesis by was assessed Oil Red O staining. Protein levels of related markers runt-related transcription factor 2 and lipoprotein lipase were also examined. RNA sequencing and measurement of glycolysis activities showed that LA significantly activated glycolysis in ADSCs. Together, our data strongly suggest that the LA have an anti-aging effect through activate the glycolysis pathway.

Abbreviations

LA: Licochalcone A; ADSC: Adipose-derived stem cells; DEGs: Differentially expressed genes; ECAR: Extracellular acidification rate; OCR: Oxygen consumption rate; GAPDH: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; H: Hour; Min: Minutes (min); hADSC: Human adipose-derived stem cells; RUNX2: Runt-related transcription factor 2; LPL: Lipoprotein lipase; PPARγ: peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors γ; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase; OCN: Alkaline osteocalcin; PKM: Pyruvate kinase muscle type; MMP14: Matrix metalloproteinase 14; PFKP: Platelet isoform of phosphofructokinase; RNA-seq: RNA sequencing; ROS: Reactive oxygen species; SA-β-gal: Senescence-associated β-galactosidase.