Trilobatin, a Novel SGLT1/2 Inhibitor, Selectively Induces the Proliferation of Human Hepatoblastoma Cells

Studies have indicated that Na(+)-d-glucose co-transporter (SGLT) inhibitors had anti-proliferative activity by attenuating the uptake of glucose in several tumor cell lines. In this study, the molecular docking showed that, trilobatin, one of the dihydrochalcones from leaves of Lithocarpus polystachyus Rehd., might be a novel inhibitor of SGLT1 and SGLT2, which evidently attenuated the uptake of glucose in vitro and in vivo. To our surprise, we observed that trilobatin did not inhibit, but promoted the proliferation of human hepatoblastoma HepG2 and Huh 7 cells when it was present at high concentrations. At the same time, incubation with high concentrations of trilobatin arrested the cell cycle at S phase in HepG2 cells. We also found that treatment with trilobatin had no significant effect on the expression of hepatitis B x-interacting protein (HBXIP) and hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)-4α, the two key regulators of hepatocyte proliferation. Taken together, although trilobatin worked as a novel inhibitor of SGLTs to attenuate the uptake of glucose, it also selectively induced the cell proliferation of HepG2 cells, suggesting that not all the SGLT inhibitors inhibited the proliferation of tumor cells, and further studies are needed to assess the anti-cancer potentials of new glucose-lowering agents.