Abstract
The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of thymoquinone (TQ) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in rats. Our study has reported that TQ treatment of experimentally-induced HCC results in the up-regulation of the Jun-N-terminal kinase and p38 mitogen activated protein kinase pathway (JNK/p38 MAPK) and the enhancement of anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and pro-apoptotic machineries. TQ resulted in a significant decrease in the levels of nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NF kappa B), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and a significant increase in the anti-inflammatory interleukin-10 (IL-10). The pro-apoptotic effect of TQ was demonstrated through stimulating the apoptotic Bcl-2-associated X (Bax) gene and inhibiting the anti-apoptotic B-cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) gene together with increasing the level of caspase 3 and up-regulating the C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP-1) gene expression. TQ treatment also enhanced the activity of the ROS scavenger, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and decreased the level of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA). TQ-dependent suppression of HCC was associated with the up-regulation of JNK/p38 MAPK, enhanced CHOP-1 expression, and subsequently increased Bax gene expression.