Analysis of epithelial integrity system in tumor invasion and metastasis of oral cancer

上皮间质转化(EMT)参与口腔鳞癌的侵袭和转移。Snail是一种转录因子和EMT诱导剂，在SCC细胞中指导其靶基因的转录以获得EMT。在EMT过程中，我们关注了鳞状细胞癌细胞间上皮完整性的丧失过程。为了研究这一点，我们利用重组病毒感染系统构建了强制表达蜗牛的SCC细胞池。大部分细胞持续表达外源性Snail，但有一小部分细胞接受了EMT。培养皿上的细胞被给予迁移区，并升级为EMT。免疫细胞化学和免疫印迹分析表明，上皮完整性的丧失和细胞与细胞的接触是EMT过程的最后一步，这一过程被不同的体液因素加速。

Epithelial-Mesencymal Transition(EMT) is involved in tumor invasion and metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinomas(SCCs). Snail, a transcription factor and EMT inducer, directs transcription of its target genes for the acquisition of EMT in SCC cells. We focused a process of loss of epithelial integrity among SCC cells during the EMT. For the investigation of that, we generated SCC cell pools of forced Snail expression by recombinant virus infection system. Almost the cells displayed constant expression of exogenous Snail, however, a small population of the cells underwent EMT. The cells on culture dish were given the migration area and were escalated into EMT. Immnocytochemistory and immnoblot analyses showed that loss of epithelial integrity and cell-cell contact were the last step of EMT process and the process was accelerated by distinct humoral factors.