Cortactin expression in a Norwegian cohort of human papilloma virus negative oral squamous cell carcinomas of the mobile tongue

Abstract

Oral squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue (OTSCC) is the most common malignancy among oral squamous cell carcinomas and is frequently associated with an unfavorable prognosis. Local spread and distant metastasis are important causes of poor prognosis in OTSCC. Cortactin amplification and overexpression, a common molecular alteration in oral squamous cell carcinomas, have been linked to invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. However, the intra‐tumor expression pattern and prognostic significance of cortactin in human papillomavirus (HPV) negative OTSCC is not fully investigated. Immunohistochemical analysis using tissue microarray consisting of formalin‐fixed and paraffin‐embedded HPV negative OTSCC (n = 123) specimens showed overexpression of cortactin at tissue cores from invading fronts as compared to the corresponding center cores. High overall cortactin expression was found to be associated with advanced (larger) tumor size and the occurrence of distance metastasis. Kaplan‐Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high overall cortactin expression were associated with reduced 5‐year survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified high cortactin expression to be an independent prognostic factor in OTSCC. Additionally, siRNA‐mediated silencing of cortactin was found to suppress the proliferative and invasive abilities of OTSCC cells in an organotypic co‐culture model. Overexpression of cortactin is a promising prognostic marker in HPV‐negative OTSCC.

Investigation of Roles of SLC38A1 in Proliferation and Differentiation of Mouse Tongue Epithelium and Expression in Human Oral Tongue Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Primary normal oral keratinocytes (NOK1 and NOK2) were isolated from mucosal tissue obtained after third molar extractions [24] and cultured in keratinocyte serum-free medium as described previously [24,25]. The OSCC-derived cell lines CaLH3 [26] and SCC25 [27] were grown in a DMEM/F12 1:1 mixture (Gibco) supplemented with 10% FBS, 10 ng/mL epidermal growth factor, 0.4 µg/mL hydrocortisone, 0.05× ITS-A (Gibco), 50 µg/mL sodium L-ascorbate, 2% L-Glutamine and 1× antibiotic and antimycotic solution.…”