The hepatoprotective effect of lycopene on Con A-induced liver injury in mice.

Lycopene, the main fat-soluble pigment responsible for the red color of ripe tomatoes, is a symmetrical tetraterpene comprising eight isoprene units. In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that lycopene acts as a potent antioxidant; it is 100 times more effective than vitamin E and 125 times more effective than glutathione as an antioxidant. Here, we divided BALB/c male mice into three equal groups: control, Concanavalin A (Con A), and Con A and lycopene. The control group mice received only vehicle by intraperitoneal injection, the Con A group mice were given Con A, and the Con A and lycopene group mice received Con A and lycopene. The results showed that Con A administration increased histopathological damage, and the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), interleukin (IL)-6, interferon (IFN)-γ and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α were increased in serum samples whereas the levels of these compounds were significantly decreased in the Con A and lycopene group compared to the Con A group. Furthermore, we observed that lycopene led to an increase in cell viability and cell growth. The results of this study revealed that lycopene might be a useful hepatoprotective agent for reducing increased proinflammatory cytokine levels, and for increasing cell viability and cell growth.

ZNF750 is a lineage-specific tumour suppressor in squamous cell carcinoma.

ZNF750 controls epithelial homeostasis by regulating epidermal-differentiation genes, a role underscored by its pathogenic mutations in esophageal squamous cell cancers (SCCs). However, the precise role of ZNF750 in SCC cell biology remains unclear. In this study, we report that ZNF750 is exclusively deleted, mutated and underexpressed in human SCCs, and low ZNF750 expression is associated with poor survival. Restoration of wildtype, but not mutant ZNF750 protein uniquely inhibited the malignant phenotypes of SCC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Notably, ZNF750 promoted the expression of a long non-coding RNA (TINCR), which mediated both cancer-inhibition and differentiation-induction effects of ZNF750. In addition, ZNF750 potently suppressed cell migration by directly inhibiting the transactivation of LAMC2. Together, our findings characterize ZNF750 as a crucial SCC-specific suppressor and uncover its novel anticancer-associated functions.