The upregulated α-catulin expression was involved in head-neck squamous cell carcinogenesis by promoting proliferation, migration, invasion, and epithelial to mesenchymal transition

Rho signaling component, α-catulin, is a cytoskeletal linker protein and plays an important role in apoptotic and senescence resistance, cytoskeletal reorganization, mobility, invasion, and epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) of cancer cells. Here, we transfected α-catulin-expressing plasmid into head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell and examined the phenotypes and relevant molecules. α-catulin expression was detected on tissue microarray containing squamous epithelium, dysplasia, and cancer of head and neck by immunohistochemistry. It was found that α-catulin overexpression resulted in faster growth, migration and invasion, lower apoptosis, G 2 /M progression, and EMT than the mock and control ( P < 0.05). α-catulin overexpression increased the expression of Cyclin E1 , cdc2 , survivin , Bcl-2 , MMP-2 , MMP-9 , and N-cadherin but decreased the expression of Caspase-3 and E-cadherin by real-time PCR ( P < 0.05). α-catulin expression was stronger in primary cancers than those in normal squamous epithelium and dysplasia ( P < 0.05), but not correlated with aggressive behaviors or adverse prognosis of HNSCC patients ( P > 0.05). Multivariate survival analysis showed that distant metastasis and TNM staging were independent prognostic factors for overall survival of the HNSCC patients ( P < 0.05). These data indicated that upregulated expression of α-catulin protein might have impact on the tumorigenesis of HNSCC possibly by reducing apoptosis, enhancing proliferation, cell cycle progression, migration, invasion, and EMT. It might be regarded as a potential marker for head and neck carcinogenesis or a target of gene therapy for HNSCCs.