Abstract: Objective To investigate the anti-proliferation effects of cell-permeable TAT-N24 fusion peptide in hepatoma cell line． Methods HepG2 cells were treated with cell-permeable TAT-N24 fusion peptide． The cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry，the proliferation of the cells was assayed by BrdU incorporation and the expression of phosphorylated AKT was detected by Western blot. Results The incorporation rates of BrdU in blank，control and TAT-N24 group were 42.7±3.6%，38.2±2.8% and 25.3±2.7%（P<0.05），respectively；the percentages of G0/G1 phase cells were 52.6±4.7%，52.0±4.6% and 68.6±4.7%（P<0.05），respectively；the phosphorylation of AKT in the three groups was not significantly different. Conclusion Cell-permeable TAT-N24 fusion peptide effectively inhibites the DNA synthesis and induces cell cycle blocked at G0/G1 phase of HepG2 cells.

Key words: HepG2 cells, Cell-permeable TAT-N24 fusion peptide, Molecular targeting therapy