Migratory activity and invadosome formation in invasive oral cancer cells

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between migration ability and invadosome organization in human oral squamous cancer cells. Wound healing assay, immunofluorescence, Western blotting, and matrix metalloproteinase zymogen gel assay were utilized to investigate the phenotype changes of three oral squamous cancer cells (OC3, OC3-I5, and OC3-IV2). Among these three cell lines, selective subpopulations of OC3, OC3-I5, and OC3-IV2 have high migratory ability compared to OC3 in a wound healing assay. Moreover, immunofluorescence showed that formation of actin dots and paxillin rings in OC3 was less than in OC3-I5 and OC3-IV2. Minor differences of other adhesion molecules and matrix metalloproteinase activity have also been observed. Enhanced cell migration ability and increased invadosomes have been detected in both in vitro selection cell line OC3-I5 and in vivo selection cell line OC3-IV2, suggesting that there may be a correlation between migration activity and invadosome formation in invasive oral cancer cells. Therefore, it would be interesting for us to continue discovering more invadosome components and evaluate whether they play any role in the regulation of the invasion ability of oral cancer cells.