Research Article - Biomedical Research (2017) Volume 28, Issue 14

Research on the inhibitory effect of metformin on human oral squamous cell carcinoma SCC-4 and CAL-27 cells and the relevant molecular mechanism

Objective: To study the metformin in human oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cell inhibitory effect and its molecular mechanism.

Methods: With human oral squamous cell carcinomas Squamous Cell Carcinoma-4 (SCC-4) and CAL-27 subcutaneous transplantation tumor cells and nude mouse models as the research subjects, we carried out MTT assay, flow cytometry assay and Western blot assay methods, so as to investigate the effects of metformin on cell proliferation, activity, clone formation and cycle in in-vitro culture of human oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cells, and to explore its molecular mechanism.

Results: The activity of oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cells in different concentration intervention after 48 h activity were reduced (p<0.05) in comparison with the control group, and presented an obvious concentration-dependent manner. By treatment of metformin in different concentration for two weeks, compared with the normal control group, oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cell clone number were significantly reduced (p<0.05), and the reduction was in an obvious concentration-dependent manner.

Conclusion: Metformin can reduce the activity of oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cell, inhibit the proliferation and clone formation of oral squamous cancer cell, and the oral squamous cell carcinomas SCC-4 and CAL-27 cell growth is stopped in G₀/G₁ phase, thereby activating AMPK signaling pathways and inhibiting mTOR signaling pathways.

Author(s): Yiming Chen, Liu Liao, Jingjing Qiu, Yongze Zheng, Shunli Tang, Rongrong Li, Dan Xie, Xiaoqiu Zou, Shuzhen Zheng, Xiang tao Weng, Wenjing Zhang

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