Monocarboxylate Transporter 4 Facilitates Cell Proliferation and Migration and Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients |
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| Authors: | Jiang Zhu Yu-Nong Wu Wei Zhang Xiao-Min Zhang Xu Ding Huai-Qi Li Meiyu Geng Zuo-Quan Xie He-Ming Wu |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute of Stomatology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, PR China.; 2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatological Hospital of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing, PR China.; 3. State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, China Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.; China Medical University, Taiwan, |
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| Abstract: | Monocarboxylate transporter 4 (MCT4) is a cell membrane transporter of lactate. Recent studies have shown that MCT4 is over-expressed in various cancers; however, its role in cancer maintenance and aggressiveness has not been fully demonstrated. This study investigated the role of MCT4 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and found that it is highly expressed in OSCC patients by using immunohistochemistry. Moreover, this over-expression of MCT4 was closely associated with tumor size, TNM classification, lymphatic metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor recurrence, and also poor prognosis. To further study mechanisms of MCT4 in vitro, we used small-interfering RNA to silence its expression in OSCC cell lines. The results showed that knock-down of MCT4 decreased cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. The inhibition of proliferation was associated with down-regulation of p-AKT and p-ERK1/2, while decreased cell migration and invasion may be caused by down-regulation of integrin β4-SRC-FAK and MEK-ERK signaling. Together, these findings provide new insight into the critical role of MCT4 in cell proliferation and metastasis in OSCC. |
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