Chidamide induces apoptosis in DLBCL cells by suppressing the HDACs/STAT3/Bcl-2 pathway

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a highly heterogeneous malignant tumor type, and epigenetic modifications such as acetylation or deacetylation serve vital roles in its development. Chidamide, a novel histone deacetylase inhibitor, exerts an anticancer effect against various types of cancer. The present study aimed to evaluate the cellular effect of chidamide on a number of DLBCL cell lines and to investigate its underlying mechanism. The results demonstrated that chidamide induced the death of these cells in a concentration-(0–30 µmol/l) and time-dependent (24–72 h) manner, as determined using the Cell Counting Kit-8 cell viability assay. Moreover, chidamide promoted cellular apoptosis, which was identified via flow cytometry and western blot analysis, with an increase in cleaved caspase-3 expression and a decrease in Bcl-2 expression. Chidamide treatment also decreased the expression level of STAT3 and its phosphorylation, which was accompanied by the downregulation of a class-I histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, chidamide. Collectively, these data suggested that chidamide can be a potent therapeutic agent to treat DLBCL by inducing the apoptotic death of DLBCL cells by inhibiting the HDACs/STAT3/Bcl-2 pathway.