Premium
Retinoic acid suppression of squamous differentiation in human head‐and‐neck squamous carcinoma cells
Author(s) -
Poddar Susmita,
Hong Waun K.,
Thacher Scott M.,
Lotan Reuben
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910480215
Subject(s) - retinoic acid , squamous carcinoma , head and neck , tretinoin , medicine , cancer research , oncology , carcinoma , pathology , biology , cell culture , genetics , surgery
Retinoids (vitamin A analogues) inhibit the squamous differentiation of normal and malignant epithelial cells. This Study investigated the ability of the head‐and‐neck squamous‐cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cell line 1483 to undergo squamous differentiation in the absence and presence of β‐all‐trans retinoic acid (RA). The growth of these cells in culture is accompanied by an increase in keratinocyte trans‐glutaminase, involucrin and keratin KI, 3 established markers of squamous cell differentiation. Higher levels of these differentiation markers were detected in cells cultured in delipidized serum (DLS), from which endogenous retinoids have been extracted, than in cells cultured in fetal bovine serum (FBS), which contains retinoids. Treatment with I μM RA decreased the levels of the various differentiation markers in cells cultured in either FBS or DLS as revealed by labelling of permeabilized cells and by immunoblotting of cell extracts using specific monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies. The cells' ability to cross‐link proteins to form envelopes under the plasma membrane was stimulated in the presence of calcium ionophore but Inhibited by RA. These results indicate that the malignant 1483 HNSCC cells recapitulate the main characteristics of normal squamous‐cell differentiation in culture and that RA suppresses this differentiation as it does in normal keratinizing epithelial cells.