Effects of POSTN on proliferation,apoptosis and EMT of human hypopharyngeal carcinoma cells
Objective To investigate the effect of Periostin(POSTN)on proliferation,apoptosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition(EMT)in human hypopharyngeal carcinoma cells and its mechanisms.Methods The expression of POSTN in head and neck carci-noma was analyzed by TIMER2 database.Human hypopharyngeal carcinoma FaDu cells were cultured and transfected with different si-POSTN(si-POSTN1 group,si-POSTN2 group,si-POSTN3 group),and negative control sequence si-NC(NC group),respectively.Then two groups with higher POSTN knockdown efficiency were screened by PCR for the subsequent experiments.CCK-8 and colony formation assay were used to detect the cell proliferation.Cell scratch test and Transwell assay were used to detect the abilities of cell migration and invasion.Western blot was used to detect the expressions of apoptosis-related proteins(Bax,Bcl-2)and EMT-related proteins(N-cadherin,E-cadherin,Vimentin,Snail).PCR was used to detect the mRNA expressions of TGF-β/Smad pathway-related genes(TGF-β1,SMAD2,SMAD3).Results PCR results showed that the mRNA expression of POSTN in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group was lower than that in si-POSTN3 group(P<0.05),so si-POSTN1 and si-POSTN2 were screened for the subsequent experiments.The protein expression of POSTN in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group was lower than that in NC group(P<0.001).Compared with NC group,the cell proliferation,migration and invasion abilities were significantly reduced in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group(P<0.05).Compared with NC group,the protein expression of Bax was increased while the protein expression of Bcl-2 was decreased in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group(P<0.01),the expression of E-cadherin was increased while the expressions of N-cadherin,Vimentin and Snail were decreased in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group(P<0.05).Compared with NC group,the expressions of TGF-β1,SMAD2 and SMAD3 were decreased in si-POSTN1 group and si-POSTN2 group(P<0.01).Conclusion POSTN can promote the migration,invasion and proliferation abilities of human hypopharyngeal carcinoma cells,promote the process of EMT,inhibit the cell apoptosis,which may be regulated by TGF-β/Smad pathway.