Figure 4.

Inhibition of liver cancer cell proliferation and the Warburg effect by GA is associated with HK2 suppression through the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. After HepG2 cells were treated with the AKT agonist and GA, the (A) phosphorylation level of AKT and (B and C) expression of HK2 were measured by reverse transcription-quantitative PCR and western blotting. (D) The Cell Counting Kit-8 assay and (E) EdU staining were employed to assess cell proliferation. (F) Glucose uptake capacity, (G) lactic acid content, (H) ECAR and (I) OCR were analyzed. Data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation. *P<0.05, **P<0.01. ECAR, extracellular acidification rate; OCR, oxygen consumption rate; HK2, hexokinase-2; GA, glycyrrhizin; p-AKT, phosphorylated-AKT.