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A comparative assessment of the effects of integrin inhibitor cilengitide on primary culture of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and HNSCC cell lines

Clinical and Translational Oncology volume 21, pages 1052–1060 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Integrins are highly attractive targets in oncology due to their involvement in angiogenesis in a wide spectrum of cancer entities. Among several integrin inhibitors, cilengitide is suggested to be one of the most promising inhibitors. However, little is known about the cellular processes induced during cilengitide chemotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Materials and methods

For the current study, 3 HNSCC cell lines, SCC4, SCC15 and SCC25; and 3 primary culture cells, TU53, TU57, and TU63 were used. CD90, cytokeratin, and vimentin were stained immunohistochemically to identify the biological characteristics of these cell lines and primary culture cells and the cytostatic effect of cilengitide was evaluated. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) arrays were applied to evaluate target protein genes ITGAV, ITGB3, and ITGB5 of integrin αvβ3 and αvβ5 at respective concentrations of 50 and 100 μM cilengitide for 72 h.

Results

Cilengitide has significantly inhibited the proliferation of HNSCC cells in a dose-dependent way. At the same concentration, cilengitide suppressed the proliferation of primary culture cells even more strongly than it did that of cell lines, suggesting that primary culture cells retain more of their internal biological characteristics than do cell lines. qPCR assay detected downregulation of ITGAV, ITGB3, and ITGB5 gene expression after exposure to 50 μM of cilengitide. However, after exposure to 100-μM cilengitide, expression of these genes significantly increased both in cell lines and primary culture cells.

Conclusions

RGD-containing small-molecule synthetic peptides might be considered in tumor chemotherapy in the near future. The different reactions of primary culture cells and cell lines demonstrated that individualized chemotherapy plans may be a feasible option. However, research on the role of cilengitide in HNSCC therapy is still in its early stages, and further investigations are required.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the laboratory staff members of the involved groups. We thank LetPub for its linguistic assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatology Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    L. Zhang

  2. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Christian Albrechts University, Campus Kiel, Arnold-Heller-Straße 3, 24105, Kiel, Germany

    A. Gülses, N. Purcz, J. Wiltfang & Y. Açil

  3. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany

    J. Weimer

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  1. L. Zhang
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  2. A. Gülses
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  6. Y. Açil
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Correspondence to A. Gülses.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The experiments carried out were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, Germany (AZ.D417/09).

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Zhang, L., Gülses, A., Purcz, N. et al. A comparative assessment of the effects of integrin inhibitor cilengitide on primary culture of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and HNSCC cell lines. Clin Transl Oncol 21, 1052–1060 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-018-02025-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-018-02025-3

Keywords

  • Squamous cell carcinoma
  • Primary culture cell
  • Cell line
  • Proliferation
  • Integrin
  • Cilengitide