ADAMTS14 Induces Cellular Metastasis in Oral Cancer Cells

Objectives: Oral cancer is a common malignant cancer worldwide and the fifth leading cause of cancer death in Taiwan. ADAMTS14 is a member of the ADAMTS (A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin motifs) metalloproteinase family that assembles and degrades extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. However, the effects and molecular mechanisms of ADAMTS14 in cell migration and invasion in human oral cancer have not been clarified.
Methods: We conducted MTT assay, wound healing assay, Boyden chamber assay, real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot to examine SCC-9 and SCC-25 human oral cancer cell lines.
Results: The overexpression of ADAMTS14 increases the migration and invasion capacity of SCC-9 cells (p<0.001). In addition, transfection with ADAMTS14 siRNA inhibited the ADAMTS14-induced cell migration and invasion of SCC-9 cells. Furthermore, silencing of ADAMTS14 significantly reduced SCC-25 cells migration and invasion. SCC-9 cells overexpression ADAMTS14 decrease the expressions of Interferon-induced protein with tetratricopeptide repeats 2 (IFIT2) and increase phosphorylation expression in extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) and p38 MAPK signaling proteins. Contrariwise, SCC-25 cells knockdown ADAMTS14 increase the expressions of IFIT2.
Conclusions: According to the results, we inferred that ADAMTS14 could regulate oral cancer cells migration and invasion by altering the expression of IFIT2 via the ERK1/2 and p38 MAPK pathways.