Expression of β-arrestin1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma and its effect on cell proliferation, migration and invasion

To investigate the effect of β-arrestin1 (ARRB1) on cell proliferation, migration and invasion in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).

Based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, the expression profiles of ARRB1 in OSCC were analyzed, and then Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was used to suggest the possible signaling pathways involved, and to explore its potential impact on the prognosis of OSCC patients. Immuinohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to detect the expression of ARRB1 in OSCC tumor tissues and adjacent tissues, and the correlation between ARRB1 expression and clinicopathological features was statistically analyzed. The expression profiles of ARRB1 in SCC-15, CAL-27 and HOK cell lines were verified by qPCR and Western blotting. The ARRB1 overexpression plasmid model was constructed, and its effects on the proliferation, migration and invasion of OSCC cells were analyzed by clone formation, EdU, scratch and Transwell assays.

TCGA showed that the expression level of ARRB1 was significantly lower in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC) and OSCC tissues than the corresponding normal tissues (P<0.01). The expression of ARRB1 in OSCC tissues was correlated with tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage (P<0.05). The OSCC patients with high expression of ARRB1 had a lower survival rate than those with low expression (P<0.01), which was consistent with the results of bioinformatics analysis. The expression level of ARRB1 in SCC-15 and CAL-27 cells was lower than that of HOK cells (P<0.01), and its overexpression significantly inhibited cell proliferation (P<0.05), migration (P<0.01) and invasion (P<0.01).

ARRB1 is lowly expressed in OSCC, its overexpression inhibits the proliferation, migration and invasion of OSCC cells, and it is related to prognosis improvement.