Open Access

ARTICLE

KIF18A is a potential prognostic factor and promotes tumor progression in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma

XIAOFEI LV^1,#, XI YU^2,#, JIE XU³, MINGYI WANG⁴, CHENG PENG^1,*

1 Department of Stomatology, the Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, China
2 Department of Anesthesiology, the Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300211, China
3 Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin, 300060, China
4 Department of Oral & Maxillofacial-Head & Neck Oncology, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiaotong University; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology & Shanghai Research Institute of Stomatology, National Clinical Research Center of Stomatology, Shanghai, 200011, China

* Address correspondence to: Cheng Peng,
# These authors have contributed equally to this work

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Cellular Biomechanics in Health and Diseases)

BIOCELL 2022, 46(5), 1189-1196. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2022.018249

Received 09 July 2021; Accepted 26 July 2021; Issue published 06 January 2022

Abstract

The kinesin family member 18A protein was dysregulated in several human cancers and involved in cancer progression. However, the significance in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) has not been studied. The present study was intended to explore the functions of KIF18A in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. The immunohistochemistry (IHC) assay was performed to assess the relationships between the KIF18A protein expression level and clinical-pathological features of the patients. The biological functions of KIF18A in OTSCC cells were investigated by the experiments in vitro and in vivo. Based on immunohistochemistry, we found that KIF18A was correlated with the clinical-pathological features of OTSCC patients. High expression of KIF18A was associated with the lymph node metastasis, and clinical stages. In vitro experiments revealed that silencing of KIF18A significantly inhibited the expression of the proliferation and migration related proteins such as Ki67, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, matrix metalloproteinase-7 and matrix metalloproteinase-9, and thereby inhibiting the proliferation, migration and invasion of tumor cells. In vivo, knocking-down of KIF18A could inhibit the tumor growth in nude mice. In conclusion, we found KIF18A promoted tumor progression in vivo and in vitro and might become an effective target for the treatment of OTSCC.

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Keywords

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