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| Author(s): |
Manoela Carrera Martinez Cavalcante Pereira
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Doctoral Thesis |
| Press: | Piracicaba, SP. |
| Institution: | Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Faculdade de Odontologia de Piracicaba |
| Defense date: | 2012-12-14 |
| Examining board members: |
Ricardo Della Coletta;
Ana Carolina Prado Ribeiro;
Silvia Regina de Almeida Reis;
Marcelo Rocha Marques;
Márcio Ajudarte Lopes
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| Advisor: | Ricardo Della Coletta; Tuula Anneli Salo |
| Abstract | |
Although HOX genes are known for acting in the regulation of important events during embryogenesis, such as cellular proliferation, differentiation and migration, alterations in their expression patterns have been frequently associated to the development of cancers. Studies in our laboratory characterized the expression profile of the 39 members of the HOX family of homeobox genes in oral samples of normal mucosa and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), identifying differently expressed genes. Among those genes are HOXA10, which has its expression related to tumor development and prognosis. The aim of the study was to valitade the elevated levels of HOXA10 on oral SCCs comparing to the normal oral mucosa, and to analyze the effects of the overexpression and neutralization of HOXA10 in modulating the main biological events associated to tumorigenesis. The levels of HOXA10 were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR, and the HOXA10 effects on proliferation, apoptosis, adhesion, epitelial-mesenchimal transition (EMT), migration and invasion were evaluated on HaCaT normal keratinocytes cells overexpressing HOXA10 and on HSC-3 tongue carcinoma cells expressing a shRNA sequence to neutralize HOXA10 expression. The expression of HOXA10 was significantly higher on oral SCC samples when compared to the normal tissue controls. HaCaT cells overexpressing HOXA10 showed higher expression of N-cadherin and ?-catenin mRNA levels, and adhesion and migration were coordinately regulated on those cells. The neutralization of HOXA10 reduced significantly the proliferation capacity of HSC-3 cells, while induced significantly the expression of EMT markers, cell adhesion as well as the migration and invasion of HSC-3 cells. Overexpression and neutralization of HOXA10 did not modulate apoptosis rates. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the HOXA10 expression modulates important events associated with development and progression of oral SCCs (AU) | |