Figure 1

Activation of AMPK by pharmaceutical AMPK activators suppresses expression of FOXM1. (A) XTT cell proliferation assay showed that the growth rates of cervical cells; Caski and SiHa, were significantly reduced in a dose and time dependent manner upon the treatment of metformin (10 mM and 20 mM) when compared with the control medium. (B) Western blot analysis showed that the level of p-AMPKα was increased, while the level of FOXM1 was reduced in cervical cancer cells (Caski, C33A and Hela) when treated with AICAR (1 mM), A23187 (2 μM) and metformin (25 mM) for various time points. (C) RT-Q-PCR analysis demonstrated that the FOXM1 mRNA level of C33A and SiHa cells was remarkably reduced when treated with metformin (25 mM) and A23187 (2 μM) from 16 hrs to 24 hrs. The 18S gene was used as an internal control.