Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Figure 3

Gelatin zymography shows MMP-9 and MMP-2 activities in the culture medium of control and stimulated normal oral epithelial cells (HOK) and two oral cancer cell lines (HN6 and HN15) with 10 ng/mL of PMA or 10 μg/mL of F.n.CW. The result showed that the phenotype of two oral cancer cell lines was indeed transformed into mesenchymal cells, in which they possessed higher MMP-2, but less MMP-9, activities than normal oral epithelial cells (HOK). Interestingly, unlike normal oral epithelial cells, there was no alteration in terms of MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities in HN6 and HN15 stimulated with either F.n.CW or PMA when compared to normal cells stimulated with PMA (HOK + PMA). The gelatinolytic activities of purified MMP-2 and MMP-9 are shown on the two left columns.