These data suggest that Akt signaling could induce the

EMT through activation of Snail, but not SIP-1/ZEB-2, in OSCC cells. The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Twist, a protein known to be essential for initiating mesoderm development during gastrulation, was recently added to the growing list of developmental genes with a key role in E-cadherin repression and EMT induction [34]. Yang et al. [29] demonstrated that knockdown of Twist expression by RNAi in a metastatic mammary tumor cell AZD1480 in vitro line prevented lung metastasis, and the high levels of Twist expression seen in 70% of invasive lobular breast carcinomas, which display many features of EMT, were inversely correlated with E-cadherin expression. However, there have been no reports on the relationship of Twist with the EMT in oral Luminespib cancer cells. In the present study, inhibition of Akt activity induced downregulation of EMT-related Twist in OSCC cells. To our knowledge, this study is the first description of the participation Citarinostat solubility dmso of Twist in the EMT/MErT process in oral cancer. Akt signaling has been deeply studied because Akt plays critical roles in regulating growth,

proliferation, survival, metabolism, and other cellular activities [21, 35]. Chua et al. [36] showed that NF-κB suppresses the expression of epithelial specific genes E-cadherin and desmoplakin and induces the expression of the mesenchymal specific gene vimentin in breast carcinoma cells. Similarly, Julian et al. [37] reported that activation of NF-κB by Akt upregulates Snail expression and induces EMT in OSCC cells, and expression of the NF-κB subunit p65 is sufficient for EMT induction. We investigated whether it could be possible in Montelukast Sodium the reverse direction, which have been little known. In the present study, inhibition of Akt activity induced the MErT through interaction with NF-κB. Downregulation of NF-κB contributed to MErT. Huber et al. [38] showed that inhibition of NF-κB signaling prevents

EMT in Ras-transformed epithelial cells, while activation of this pathway promotes the transition to a mesenchymal phenotype. Fig. 7 shows a schematic representation of the proposed signaling mechanism that promotes MErT through the inhibition of Akt activity in KB and KOSCC-25B cells. Additional study using NF-κB inhibitors could be needed in order to verify this proposed pathway. Figure 7 A schematic representation of the proposed signaling mechanism that promotes MErT through the inhibition of Akt activity in oral cancer cells. In summary, we demonstrated that Akt inhibition by PIA treatment induced downregulation of Snail and Twist expression, upregulation of E-cadherin and β-catenin, downregulation of vimentin, and reduced cell migration, which led to the MErT in oral cancer cells. The MErT in oral cancer cells seems to be acquired through decreased NF-κB signaling.