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Invasion and Metastasis of Oral Cancer Cells Require Methylation of E-Cadherin and/or Degradation of Membranous ß-Catenin

¹ Department of Oral Maxillofacial Pathobiology, Division of Frontier Medical Science, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, and ² Center of Oral Clinical Examination, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan

The extent of lymph node metastasis is a major determinant in the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Abnormalities of cell adhesion molecules are known to play an important role in invasion and metastasis of cancer cells through the loss of cell-to-cell adhesion. In this study, we isolated highly invasive clones from an OSCC cell line established from a lymph node metastasis by using an in vitro invasion assay method and compared the abnormalities of cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin and ß-catenin in these cells. The isolated, highly invasive clones showed significant invasive capacity and reduction of E-cadherin and membranous ß-catenin protein in comparison with parent cells. We found that reduced expression of E-cadherin was due to methylation of its promoter region. In fact, most invasive and metastatic area of OSCCs showed reduced expression and methylation of E-cadherin. Moreover, we found that reduced expression of membranous ß-catenin was due to its protein degradation. Reduced expression of membranous ß-catenin was also found frequently in invasive and metastatic areas of OSCCs. In summary, invasion and metastasis of OSCC cells require methylation of E-cadherin and/or degradation of membranous ß-catenin. In addition, we suggest that the method of isolation of highly invasive clones may be useful for studies aimed at discovering novel genes involved in invasion and metastasis.

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