@article {UMBREIT7061, author = {CLAUDIA UMBREIT and JULIA FLANJAK and CHRISTEL WEISS and PHILIPP ERBEN and CHRISTOPH ADERHOLD and ANNE FABER and JENS STERN-STRAETER and KARL HOERMANN and JOHANNES DAVID SCHULTZ}, title = {Incomplete Epithelial{\textendash}Mesenchymal Transition in p16-positive Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells Correlates with β-Catenin Expression}, volume = {34}, number = {12}, pages = {7061--7069}, year = {2014}, publisher = {International Institute of Anticancer Research}, abstract = {Background: The epithelial{\textendash}mesenchymal transition (EMT) is suggested to be a crucial factor for the development of an invasive and metastatic cell phenotype, which is characterized by down-regulation of epithelial adhesive proteins (e.g. E-cadherin) and induction of mesenchymal proteins (e.g. vimentin). Therefore, there is a great clinical interest to specify this phenotype. Different growth factors induce EMT, such as epithelial growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1). The role of EMT in human papilloma virus (HPV)-positive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is still not understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression pattern in p16-positive and -negative SCC cells of vimentin, β-catenin and E-cadherin after stimulation with growth factors. Materials and Methods: We incubated the p16-positive CERV196 and p16-negative HNSCC22B SCC cell lines with EGF and EGF/TGFβ1 (10 ng/ml) and detected E-cadherin, vimentin and β-catenin by immunocytochemistry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay after 5, 24 and 96 h. Results: We found a low expression of vimentin in all studied tumor cell lines. The negative control of HNSCC22B cells showed a higher intrinsic level of membranous E-cadherin and β-catenin. We found statistically significant EGF/TGFβ1-induced expression of vimentin dependent on incubation time in p16-negative HNSCC22B cells. Particularly in the presence of EGF, we detected an increase of β-catenin and vimentin expression in p16-positive SCC tumor cell lines in addition to induced cell scattering and unexpected expression of E-cadherin. Conclusion: In conclusion, E-cadherin, β-catenin and vimentin expression are important features to characterize EMT-like events. We were able to show incomplete EGF-induced EMT with β-catenin expression in p16-positive SCC. Extended studies are required to investigate the mechanistic role of EMT markers, especially in p16-positive SCC, in order to develop new anti-SCC therapies to block EMT progression.}, issn = {0250-7005}, URL = {https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/12/7061}, eprint = {https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/12/7061.full.pdf}, journal = {Anticancer Research} }