JAPANESE JOURNAL OF ORAL & MAXILLOFACIAL SURGERY

Vol. 54 No. 2                     2008

ISSN: 0021-5163      UBIC: 151-J

ABSTRACT

Epithelial-mesenchymal interactions are crucial to cancer metastasis and invasion of oral squamous cell carcinoma. We have established a modified in vitro fibronectin degradation/invasion assay in which tumor cells are co-cultured with fibroblasts. Using this assay, we measured the invasive activity of three cell lines derived from human oral squamous cell carcinomas of different grades. According to Yamamoto Kohama' s classification. OSC-20 was classified as grade 3, OSC-19 as grade 4C, and HOC313 as grade 4D. HOC313 showed stronger invasiveness when co-cultured with fibroblasts than did OSC-20 or OSC-19. Knockdown of the matrix metalloproteinase gene MT1-MMP in either the cancer cells or the fibroblasts completely inhibited in vitro invasiveness. suggesting that MT1-MMP might be a key trigger of protease activation cascades. Key words: squamous cell carcinoma, fibronectin degradation/invasion assay mode of invasion.

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