Abstract 1036: WISP-1 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in oral squamous cell carcinoma via the miR-153-3p/Snail axis

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common oral malignancy and approximately 50% of patients with OSCC present with regional regional lymph node metastasis. The first step in the ‘invasion-metastasis cascade’ is the phenomenon of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), whereby epithelial cells of the primary tumor lose their apical-basal polarity and transition to a mesenchymal phenotype, gaining the ability to migrate and invade basement membrane and blood vessels. WNT1-inducible signaling pathway protein-1 (WISP-1/CCN4) is an extracellular matrix-related protein that belongs to the CCN family, capable of stimulating bone remodeling and tumor progression. Our previous research showed that WISP-1 promotes cell migration and VEGF-C-dependent lymphangiogenesis in OSCC cells. This investigation further examined the role of WISP-1 in regulating EMT. First, we analyzed data from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA) database, to determine the clinical importance of WISP-1 in oral cancer. We found that WISP-1 expression was significantly associated with clinical disease stage and regional lymph node metastasis. Moreover, we found higher levels of WISP-1 expression in serum samples obtained from 62 patients with OSCC compared with samples from healthy controls. Treatment of the OSCC cell line SCC4 with WISP-1 increased EMT by downregulating expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin and upregulating the mesenchymal marker Snail. We also observed that WISP-1 regulated the expression of EMT markers via the FAK, ILK and AKT signal transduction pathways. Computational analysis confirmed that microRNA (miR)-29c directly targets the 3′ untranslated region (3′ UTR) of Snail. Treatment of SCC4 cells with WISP-1 inhibited miR-29c expression, while miR-29c mimic prevented WISP-1-induced enhancement of Snail expression, revealing an inverse correlation between miR-29c and Snail expression during WISP-1 treatment. Our findings provide insight into WISP-1-mediated regulation of EMT in OSCC. Citation Format: An-Chen Chang, Chih-Hsin Tang. WISP-1 promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition in oral squamous cell carcinoma via the miR-153-3p/Snail axis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1036.